1985: The greatest sporting year

I've been putting this off for years. But the recent Live Aid nostalgia has pushed me over the edge. We've all had the debate in the pub about the greatest sporting year - no, just me then? - so I'm here to argue the case for 1985. After forty years, it is time to tell 1985 that I'm crazy for you.

There are of course many factors involved in your chosen favourite sporting year. Allegiance matters. Therefore, Manchester United winning a treble, Europe collapsing in the Ryder Cup, and Australia winning two World Cups means I don't want to party like it's 1999. Yet pushing all this irrational stuff to one side, there can be no doubting the credentials of 1985.

1985: Ashes memories

If the 1981 Ashes series was seriously good, and the 1989 version distinctly bad from an English perspective, then I would argue that the 1985 series was far from the ugly relative in comparison. Above all it was the series that made me fall in love with the game, during a summer when I didn't have a care in the world, and I found new heroes in Botham, Ellison and Robinson. So I hope you enjoy some of my favourite memories of the 1985 Ashes, starting with the day cricket found me. 

1985: 1st Ashes Test

June 1985, and as the English nation tries to get over the shame of Heysel, and prepare itself for the forthcoming Live Aid concert, an Ashes series is about to get under way in Leeds. Think of the Ashes in the modern era and the hype is almost suffocating, Sky's '100 days to go' banner prior to the 2010/11 series a prime example of this.

It wasn't always this way though, as the 1985 series proves. A three-page cricket special in the Daily Express on the morning of the first test, and coverage starting at 10:55am (five minutes build-up!) was as far as the Ashes hype stretched to in Thatcher's Britain.