Even I have standards, albeit particularly low ones, and so I couldn’t bring myself to watch Coventry against Stevenage on the television last Sunday, which therefore led to some heavy duty channel hopping. For once though that proved productive, well in my opinion it did, as I found myself landing on ESPN Classic for the 1981 British Superstars ‘Challenge of the Champions’. The contest featuring probably the strongest ever British line-up as it consisted of all the past winners of the UK National contest, as well as the two "Past Masters" and the two men who had won heats of European Superstars.
The eight contestants being boxer John Conteh, rower Tim Crooks, long jumper Lynn Davies, rugby league and union player Keith Fielding, 400metre hurdlers David Hemery and John Sherwood, judo player Brian Jacks and footballer Malcolm MacDonald. With ten events on the card each competitor had to pick eight to take part in and the main thing you take from it in this day and age is the insurance and participation factor, particularly as far as football is concerned with MacDonald struggling throughout with a knee injury that seemed to cause him the most problems in the basketball event.
Supermac coming third in that behind winner Davies and runner-up Sherwood, with Davies also having finished second in the earlier 50m swim, Hemery winning that event with Jacks in third. It was then time for the crossbow with the top three being Fielding, Conteh and Hemery, although the best thing in that was the television pictures showing the arrow hit the board, then being taken out and then someone pointing markedly to the hole the arrow had made in the target, presumably seeing the arrow go in itself wasn’t enough proof for the viewer of where it had landed.
Jacks though was always the master of the gym and he posted an incredible 100 dips in 54 seconds plus 103 squat thrusts in a minute for a new Superstars record, which also won him a colour television from sponsors Ferguson. Jacks had beaten Sherwood and Davies easily in that event and he would coast to victory too in the clean and jerk weightlifting with Sherwood again second while MacDonald was third. Jacks then taking a third victory in the canoeing, ahead of Fielding and Crooks before the wheels started coming off for the judoka.
Jacks not finishing in the top three of any of the four remaining events as firstly in the 100m the top three was Hemery, Fielding and Sherwood while in the football it was Davies, Fielding and Sherwood. The football event consisting of three goes at dribbling between two sets of sticks then firing a shot home past Chelsea’s Belgrade-born goalkeeper Peter Borota in the quickest time possible, Welsh athlete Davies being a bit of a sly specialist in the football having had a trial for Cardiff City in his younger days.
It was Fielding though, picking up numerous good points as the competition went on, who won the cycling event around an athletics track to take the overall crown, and a cheque for £1,500, despite there still being the steeplechase remaining to compete in. Fielding not holding back in that though as he came second to Davies with the long jumper pushing Jacks down to third in the final standings with his win, that being the first ever defeat for Jacks in British or European competition in what would turn out to be his final Superstars appearance.
Superstars itself ended in 1985 in Britain having run from 1973, while in America, where it originally began it ran from 1973 to 1994 and 1998 to 2003, with a few European and World tournaments also taking place over the years. British Superstars also being revived in 2002, 2004 and 2005, with those events being won by rugby union player Austin Healey, athlete Du’aine Ladejo and skier Alain Baxter. Sadly, as I alluded to earlier, you can’t see it taking place again despite past enjoyments like Kevin Keegan crashing heavily out of the cycling in 1976. It’s precisely occurrences like that though which surely make it a non-starter these days however much you’d like to see Wayne Rooney going face first over a steeplechase hurdle.