Heartfelt tales of the unexpected

Or the spirit of a Leeds optician, Tracey Morris, who, despite dismissing herself as little more than a fun runner and having only ever jogged one marathon for charity, incredibly ran her way into the Olympic team on one April morning in the capital.

Or what about the courage of Todd Hamilton, a self-confessed 38-year-old journeyman 'grinder' who ignored odds of 150-1 and the pressure of having Ernie Els breathing down his neck for company on the final day to take The Open Championship.

As this year progressed - the Chinese Year of the Monkey, supposedly, though Year of the Underdog might have fitted better - one outlandish tale followed another, from the moment that Sir Clive Woodward's newly crowned world champions got swept by a green tide of Irish rugby passion at Twickenham in March.

I asked Graham Sharpe at William Hill what odds they would have given on 1 January on the following tales of the unexpected happening in 2004. In April, Morris qualifying for the Olympics? 50-1. In May, Porto winning the Champions League? 33-1 (though, of course, we had not quite been properly acquainted with the 'specialness' of Senor Mourinho at that point).

In May, Millwall getting into Europe? 66-1. In June, Ireland's amateur cricketers beating the West Indies, just a month after they had also defeated Surrey? 100-1. In April and May, London Wasps losing to Pertemps Bees in the Powergen Cup and then winning the European Cup? 200-1 for that weird double. In July, Greece winning Euro 2004? 80-1. And a Russian teenager, Maria Sharapova, winning Wimbledon? 18-1.

At the Olympics in August, a pretty miserly 25-1 was available for the US Dream Team of multi-millionaire NBA basketball stars to lose to both 'mighty' Puerto Rico and Lithuania and miss out on gold, but the odds on the golden double for the injury-jinxed Holmes would have been 100-1.

Europe's record Ryder Cup win in September? 25-1. Or how about Tiger Woods finishing the US PGA tour season in November without a single win in a strokeplay tournaments, while Vijay Singh won nine? The chances of such an occurrence were 100-1.

And America's sporting event of the year? The Boston Red Sox were trailing 3-0 in the best-of-seven series against the New York Yankees in their American League final, yet came back to prevail 4-3 and then went on to win their first World Series for 86 years. Hill's would have given you 50-1 on such a fanciful happening.

That these surprises should all occur in this unfathomable year was a reason for real celebration in an era where sport's little men are supposed to be getting inexorably squeezed out of the picture by monied rivals. Particularly in football.

Yet, sadly, Greece's triumph in Portugal was dismissed sniffily by some of the same footballing purists who reckoned South Korea should never have gatecrashed the big boys' league either at the World Cup a couple of years earlier.

Otto Rehhagel's men were dismissed by the killjoys as being negative, defensive strangulation merchants who had just taken advantage of the weariness of the major football nations' stars.

Of course, this would not do. The obdurate champions had to be applauded for their brilliant organisation and for reminding us that great defending is an art, too. It was a shame that, in their hour of glory, their players had to find themselves in post-match interviews having to defend their tactics during the tournament.

Stelios Giannakopoulos, the Bolton midfielder, gave the best response, saying: "I prefer to win ugly and lift the Cup than play pretty and ending up with nothing."

It was reminiscent of Hamilton who, amid mutterings that the Open had for a second consecutive year after Ben Curtis's win found a second division champion, also happily dismissed his golfing style at Royal Troon as being "ugly".

If so, then ugliness spawned some of the most beautiful sports stories of the year. Hamilton clutching the Claret Jug and telling of his struggles to make the grade which nearly forced him to quit the game 13 years before was better than seeing another familiar triumph for Els.

In the same way, hearing of a fantastic story uniting a nation, not to mention millions of Greeks around the world, was so much more refreshing than another ho-hum victory for a footballing super power.

Of course, so many sporting episodes in 2004 raised not an eyebrow - Michael Schumacher's robotic Formula One monopoly, Lance Armstrong's Tour de France procession, Arsenal and Manchester United sharing the big domestic prizes and Chelsea's rise on the back of Roman Abramovich's millions, to name but a few - that it should make us be even more thankful for the Hamiltons and Holmeses of this world. Unpredictability remains sport's lifeblood. So give a big hand for big hearts.