• June 18 down the years

Lomu tramples all over England

Jonah Lomu trampled over Mike Catt © Getty Images

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1995
The day Jonah Lomu walked over England. England knew he was on his way. New Zealand's giant new winger had taken the rugby World Cup by storm, scoring two tries in his opening match against Ireland, another in the quarter-final with Scotland, and leaving mangled tacklers in his wake. This was the semi-final - and the All Blacks showed their intentions from the start. They switched the kick-off to Lomu's wing, won the ball, recycled it through a series of rucks, then flung it out to the left. Lomu picked it up on the bounce, brushed off two tackles, then crossed the line after shaking the mortal remains of Mike Catt from his boots. One of the iconic World Cup tries. Only 70 seconds had gone and England never recovered. Minutes later, Walter Little charged through the middle and tireless flanker Josh Kronfeld scored again. When No. 8 Zinzan Brooke landed a drop goal from 45 yards, England knew it wasn't their day. At one point, they were 35-3 down, and although Rory Underwood and captain Will Carling scored two tries each, they were lucky to lose only 45-29. Lomu scored four tries and headed for the final against the quivering hosts on June 24.

1963
The most famous punch in Henry Cooper's career. Muhammad Ali was still Cassius Clay at the time, a 21-year-old world title hopeful with a mouth as big as his talent. Gaseous Cassius predicted he'd stop Britain's finest in the fifth, and he did - but there was a lot more to it than that. For the first two rounds, our 'Enery outboxed the great boxer, beating him to the punch with his famous left hand. Then Cooper's eyebrows entered the fray. They were simply too sharp and prominent to withstand Clay's punches, and by the end of the third round Cooper was blinking through the blood. He seemed unlikely to last the fourth, until - wham, a roof came crashing down. Clay's habit of keeping his hands low caught up with him, as did a trademark Cooper left hook. Heavyweight boxing's fastest mover suddenly had feet of, er, clay. He went down, bouncing off the ropes - and was saved by the bell. Well, not just the bell. In the interval, his trainer Angelo Dundee found a tear in his glove, and the time it took to replace it gave Clay another couple of minutes to recover. How the tear got there, nobody's saying - but Dundee admitted he deliberately made it bigger, a cynical little act to keep the Clay bandwagon on course. The fight was stopped on cuts in the next round and Clay's next fight was for the world title (February 25, 1964). Cooper got a title fight too, against Ali on May 21, 1966, but he might have won their first fight if he hadn't been cheated.

2006
Scottish golfer Colin Montgomerie set a record he didn't want by finishing runner-up in a Major for the fifth time, a record for a golfer who never won one. He was joint second today, just one shot behind Australia's Geoff Ogilvy. Monty's 69 in the first round gave him the outright lead; a 75 in the third damaged his chances; but he really blew it at the very last hole. Needing par to win, he shot a double bogey which summed up his Major career. He was runner-up for the first time twelve years earlier (June 19).

The 2000 US Open was dotted with landmarks. It was the 100th ever played. Jack Nicklaus played in it for the last time. And Tiger Woods won it by 15 strokes, the widest winning margin in any Major (but have a peek at the British Open on October 17, 1862). Woods's total of 272 equalled the event record first set by Nicklaus in 1980 (June 15). Woods became the first golfer to win the US junior, amateur and Open titles - and the first to lead the US Open outright after each round since Britain's Tony Jacklin on 1970 (June 21).

By the time the US Open was settled on the same day in 2001, Woods held all four Majors. But his streak ended here, where he finished 12th. Still, there was no anticlimax, just a winner who showed some serious intestinal fortitude. South Africa's Retief Goosen needed only a two-foot putt for the title. He missed it - and had a whole night to fret before the 18-hole play-off. Still, being hit by lightning as a teenager puts missed putts in perspective. And he wasn't the only one to miss one: Stewart Cink had needed only a tiddler to join Goosen and Brooks in the play-off. Goosen won it by two shots and regained the Open in 2004.

Aleksandr Popov was lightening in the 100m freestyle © Getty Images

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1999
José María Olazábal was the reigning Masters champion, but he had a bad first round at the US Open. Today he pulled out before the second - after damaging his hand when he punched a wall in frustration! Veteran Payne Stewart won the event, one shot ahead of Phil Mickelson, who was challenging Davis Love for the part of Best Player Not To Win A Major...

1923
The end of Jimmy Wilde's reign as world champion. One of the greatest boxers of all time, small even by flyweight standards but a fearsome puncher ('The ghost with a hammer in his hands'), Wilde was 31 by now, not ancient but at the end of a long hard career: he fought hundreds of bouts in fairgrounds and the like. He'd been undisputed world champion since 1916 (December 18) but hadn't fought for more than two years. Against the strong young Filipino Pancho Villa, he still looked the business, all fast hands and double-fisted hitting. But his punches lacked their old snap, and Villa was only 22 and very strong. The end came in the seventh round, when he backed the champ into the ropes before knocking him out. Wilde retired after the fight and one of the great boxing careers.

1994
Swim czar Aleksandr Popov won two Olympic gold medals in the 100 metres freestyle but set only one world record at the event, mainly because it was a good one. Today in Monte Carlo, he touched in 48.21 seconds to break a record set almost six years earlier. His own time lasted another six.

1941
Billy Conn would have beaten Joe Louis if he hadn't started taking the mick. A glamorous Irish light-heavyweight with all the skills, he vacated the world title after less than a year to go after Louis. It looked a tough ask, taking on a knockout puncher who outweighed you by nearly two stone. But it should have been more than two - and that gave Conn an edge. The contract stipulated Louis coming in slightly underweight, which left him short of stamina and power. And his bad balance made him an easy target for a slick puncher like Conn, who was ahead with only three rounds to go. Then he got cute - or rather he didn't. Instead of staying on his bike and carrying on picking Louis off, he started mixing it, going for glory, looking for a knockout. Just what the champion wanted. Knackered or not, outclassed as he was, he still had his punch - and suddenly a stationary target for it. Two right hands to the jaw provided a stunning knockout. 'I lost my head,' Conn said afterwards. 'And a million dollars.' He was back for another go five years later, but he'd missed his big chance. Second time round, Louis was at full strength, he needed only eight rounds, and the Associated Press made Conn their flop of the year.

1921
The day Charley Paddock ran so fast they didn't believe it. The reigning Olympic champion over 100 metres, he'd recently run it in 10.4 seconds to shatter the world record by two yards. Now he did it again, stopping the watches at 10.2, which was considered impossible in those days. The time wasn't put forward for ratification - not because it looked dodgy but because the course was longer than 100 metres! Yes, really. Paddock's 10.4 remained the world best until 1930, but nobody ran faster than his 10.2 until 1956.

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