Stevenage| A town full of sporting talent - Stevenage 75th anniversary magazine | biz4Biz - Magazine - Page 28
Stevenage| A town full of sporting talent
Sport Legends
A TOWN FULL OF SPORTING TALENT
There really must be something in the
water in Stevenage, writes Paul Fry.
The town has produced so many talented
sportspeople in such a broad range of
events that, to borrow a boxing metaphor,
it punches well above its weight compared
with towns of a similar size.
Harlow might have Glenn Hoddle, but
Stevenage has a genuine knight of the
road, Sir Lewis Hamilton. And five
current footballers playing in the top two
divisions, including Ashley Young and
Keinan Davis at Aston Villa and Nathan
Tella at Southampton.Then there is Ryder
Cup golf hero Ian Pouter, and, well, the
list goes on...
Suffice to say it includes a World Cup
football referee, the first black man to
play Test cricket for England, the only
Englishman to win the Golden Boot
as European football’s top goalscorer
in a season, a double Derby-winning
jockey, probably the country’s greatest
ever woman tenpin bowler, a world
landyacht champion, an Olympic 800m
gold medalist, a paralympic rowing
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gold medalist - the bragging rights are
seemingly endless.
There are 33 people (including husband
and wife international dragonboat
internationals) and one team (Stevenage
FC) in the town’s Hall of Fame, many of
whom are depicted on a brilliant Leisure
Centre walkway mural.
But, as I have found, that is barely
scratching the surface. From netball, and
basketball, badminton and athletics, the
town has produced international-class
talent down the years.
And it is actually difficult to nail down
quite why we have seen this avalanche of
talent.
ASHLEY YOUNG IN FRONT OF THE HALL OF FAME AT THE Stevenage Arts & Leisure Centre
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