Sport: What the papers said about . . . 1993

'It is not just the Queen who suffers from annus horribilis. English soccer was not a pretty sight either as it sunk to its lowest level for 40 years. We have all heard quite enough of Venables and Sugar, Clough and Ardiles, Swales and Swales, various ends of Gazza's malfunctioning anatomy, and, of course, the late, unlamented Turnip.' The Sun

'In the Chinese calendar it was the year of the little red rooster, on the sporting calendar it was the year of the almighty cock-up. The winners, by the proverbial distance, were Capt Keith Brown and his band of merry men who were charged with the 150th so-called running of the Grand National.' The Telegraph

'The year the curtain kept on falling.' The Guardian

'You would have got better odds on Gower buzzing the ground astride a low-flying pig than someone (Shane Warne) spinning the ball twice the width of a Gatting, and the abiding memory of 1993 was the sight of the former England captain splay-footed at the crease sporting an expression he normally reserves for being given out leg-before in Pakistan. The Independent

'We are all delighted she (Monica Seles) is imminently to resume her career. That said, the antics of these multi-millionaire tennis children and their financial controllers continue to bemuse me. But then so has much that has happened in mainstream sport in 1993. So few of them seem to find it fun any more. The fun is there all right but increasingly it is taking a clutch of airline tickets to find it.' Daily Mail

'Then we went up to the stadium silent but for the odd eerie shouts of a smattering of England fans and saw a computer clerk from San Marino dance on the World Cup grave of our national game. Inside nine seconds . . . If the first reaction to Davide Gualtieri's absurd score was a collective titter anger would come quickly enough. Daily Express

'Yes, that was the rear that was.' The Sun