5 years ago

BOLTON’S Olympic hero Amir Khan looked set to become the face of British boxing after hinting that he might stay in the amateur ranks, despite receiving a flood of offers to turn professional.

The Amateur Boxing Association were hoping to make 17-year-old Khan the star attraction in a TV deal they were negotiating with the BBC to show four amateur boxing shows.

The ABA were determined to keep Khan — silver medalist at that summer’s Athens games — on board for another crack at Olympic gold and there was talk of setting aside five per cent of the TV revenue to help with his development. But they faced fierce competition from the sports big money men.

Amir’s father, Shah, said they had a lot to consider.

“They want to keep Amir in the amateur game,” he said. “But we will have to think about what is on offer, when we see the figures.”

Amir, meanwhile, was in Spain to take part in the TV show Superstars. But he had a return flight specially organised to get him back to Bolton to the guest of honour at the Wanderers-Manchester United derby at the Reebok.

Wanderers were boosted in their build-up to the derby by the news that manager Sam Allardyce — who had been in charge for five years — had turned down an offer to manage Newcastle United.

The Bolton boss admitted to being “quite close” to accepting the Magpies’ offer, but insisted “there is too much here to leave”.

“I don’t know whether I’ve made the right decision,” he said. “Only time will tell, but I believe the football club in general is moving in the right direction. It hasn’t achieved all it can achieve yet, and I want to drive it on.

“I was hugely flattered. It’s great to be associated with such a massive club but the chairman didn’t want me to go and I didn’t want to walk out, so I made the relatively easy decision to stay.

“What has happened here over the last five years is what has kept me.”

Meanwhile, Sven-Goran Eriksson got the result and the World Cup points he required to keep his job when England won 2-1 in Poland — but his victorious players were sulking.

They’d taken exception to the barrage of media criticism they received after only managing a 2-2 draw with Austria the previous weekend, so refused to give any post-match interviews.

England’s cricketers were in a much more co-operative mood as they prepared for the ICC Trophy.

Lancashire’s Andrew Flintoff, voted the best one-day cricketer in the world by the International Cricket Council, was already on a high after his fiancee Rachel had given birth to their daughter, Holly.

“The best day of my life was when Rachel gave birth to little Holly,” Flintoff said, “but this week seems to be getting better and better.”

25 years ago

SIMON Farnworth was the wounded hero as John McGovern’s Wanderers picked up their first point of the season.

It was modest stuff — a scoreless draw at home to Hull City — and they remained joint bottom of the Third Division, but after seeing his defence ship nine goals in their first two games, McGovern was in good heart.

“I still reckon we are good enough to do well,” he said. “We are still not firing on 11 cylinders and only when we do that will we start winning matches.”

Wanderers were especially grateful to Farnworth who performed heroics with a succession of crucial second-half saves, despite going into the game with a broken nose.

The fans who stayed away from England’s friendly against East Germany at Wembley must have felt vindicated as Bryan Robson’s goal nine minutes from time settled a turgid affair.

The 23,951 saw little to excite them but it was a win and a performance that encouraged manager Bobby Robson to suggest: “I think our performance showed some distinct promise. We played some good football and looked comfortable.”

Lancashire marked the end of the John Player Special League with a crushing victory over the Sunday champions Essex at Old Trafford.

After bowling out the victors for 75 in a match reduced to 26 overs, Lancashire stormed to a nine-wicket win in 13.3 overs — opener Graeme Fowler hitting a half-century.

Essex, however, won the most exciting County Championship race for a long time to become the first side for 24 years to retain their title.

But it went to the last over of the season, when Notts were bowled out by Ian Botham’s Somerset — three runs short of being crowned champions.

John McEnroe was in imperious form when he beat Ivan Lendl 6-3 6-4 6-1 to win the US Open tennis title in New York.

It was all over in 100 minutes as the 25-year-old American outplayed his arch-rival.

50 years ago

IT was a story as old as football itself: Bolton Wanderers outplayed Arsenal under the Burnden Park floodlights but paid the ultimate price for missing a succession of chances when David Herd snatched a 1-0 win for the Gunners.

It was Arsenal’s only shot on target compared with the series of efforts the Wanderers attackers squandered.

Dennis Stevens, Freddie Hill and Brian Birch all squandered glorious opportunities but it was Ray Parry who suffered most frustration, hitting the bar and the post and missing a penalty. Wanderers were missing the cutting edge of their captain and top-scorer Nat Lofthouse, who had missed the start of the season with an ankle injury.

Although desperate to get him back, the Bolton directors had started to plan for the day when they would no longer be able to rely on their legendary number 9 and made no secret of the fact that they had scouts throughout the land running the rule over prospective replacements.

Wanderers, meanwhile, revealed that they had made a profit of more than £12,000 the previous season — a couple of thousand up on the 57-58 season when they won the FA Cup.

The balance sheet showed income from gate receipts and season ticket sales amounted to £99,000 and the wage bill had risen to £40,862 a year.

Elsewhere, a 21-year-old goalkeeper by the name of Gordon Banks was selected to make his debut for Leicester City at home to Blackpool after joining the Foxes from Chesterfield.