‘I am the greatest!” or so proclaimed Muhammad Ali – at the time, still known by his birth name, Cassius Clay – in February, 1964, shortly before becoming world heavyweight champion for the first time. On February 25, 1964, in his first meeting with Sonny Liston in Miami, Florida, Clay scored a shock technical knockout when the ‘big, ugly bear’, as he repeatedly called his opponent, failed to answer the bell for the seventh round. The pair met again in Lewiston, Maine on May 25, 1965, by which time Clay had joined the Nation of Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Ali; Ali won again, by first-round knockout.

Born in Louisville, Kentucky on January 17, 1942, Professional boxer Ali was blessed not only with unprecedented boxing skills, but also extraordinary self-belief, which led to him being dubbed ‘The Louisville Lip’ by the press. On April 28, 1967, as the Vietnam War escalated, Ali refused to be inducted into the US Army on religious grounds, was stripped of his heavyweight title and had his boxing licence revoked.

That decision was reversed by the US Supreme Court in 1971; Ali would go on to win two more world heavyweight titles, against George Foreman in the legendary ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo on October 30, 1974 and against Leon Spinks in New Orleans, Louisiana on September 15, 1978. Ali also fought Joe Frazier three times, culminating in the so-called ‘Thrilla in Manila’ – widely regarded as the best fight of all time – in the then capital of the Phillipines, Quezon City, on October 1, 1975; Ali won by technical knockout after 14 rounds.

Whether or not Ali was, in fact, the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time, or merely one of the greatest, is open to debate. However, he remains the only three-time champion of the heavyweight division and few would argue that he was one of the most popular, influential and charismatic figures of the twentieth century.

Born in Plumstead, South East London on August 22, 1957, Steve Davis was introduced to snooker at an early age by his late father, Bill, who died in March, 2016, at the age of 89. However, it was after he joined forces with Barry Hearn – nowadays, of course, chairman of World Snooker, but at that time chairman of Lucania Snooker Clubs – as an 18-year-old that he began his rise to prominence. Davis turned professional in September, 1978 and, in 1980, won his maiden professional title in the UK Championship at the Guild Hall, Preston, where he whitewashed Terry Griffiths 9-0 in the semi-final and demolished Alex Higgins 16-6 in the final.

Davis reached the last 16 of the World Championship at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield in 1979 and the quarter-final in 1980, losing 13-11 and 13-9 to Dennis Taylor and Alex, respectively, before winning the first of six world titles in 1981. Notwithstanding a shock 10-1 defeat at the hands of Tony Knowles in the last 32 in 1982, Davis went on to dominate the World Championship, and snooker as a whole, throughout the Eighties. He was world champion again in 1983, 1984, 1987, 1988 and 1989, and runner-up in 1985 and 1986.

Indeed, the final frame of the 1985 World Championship, in which Dennis Taylor potted the crucial final black to beat Davis 18-17, having trailed 8-0 early in the second session of the match, is probably the most famous frame in the history of snooker. The so-called ‘black ball final’ lasted nearly 15 hours, eventually finishing after midnight, and attracted a record 18.5 million television viewers.

Davis also had the distinction of compiling the first televised maximum break, against John Spencer in the quarter-final of the Lada Classic in 1982. He announced his retirement from professional snooker, at the age of 58, in April, 2016, having won 81 professional titles, including 28 ranking titles.

Thomas Sturges Watson, invariably known as Tom, had the distinction of being, officially, the best golfer in the world between 1978 and 1982. Indeed, in 1980, won seven tournaments, including the Open Championship at Muirfield Golf Links, become the first golfer to earn $500,000 in a single season.

All told, Watson won the Open Championship five times, in 1975, 1977, 1982 and 1983. Indeed, he went agonisingly close to winning for a sixth time, at the age of 59, at Turnberry in 2009; he failed to make the par he needed on the seventy-second hole to win and ultimately lost a four-hole playoff to Stewart Cink. The Open Championship aside, Watson also won the Masters twice, in 1977 and 1981, and the US Open once, in 1982. His career total of eight victories in major championship golf places him sixth in the all-time list.

Watson recorded the first of jhis 39 victories on the PGA Tour, the Western Open, now the BMW Championship, in 1974. Although a longer than average hitter, he once said, ‘By learning how to get the ball up and down, you will have mastered the art of scoring your best.’ Indeed, he became renowned for his short game, not least his apparently fearless putting stroke, which enabled him to ‘scramble’ so-called ‘Watson pars’ and manufacture good scores even though not, necessarily, playing at his very best. Ironically, for a player who produced most of his best performances by the seaside, Watson recalled, ‘I didn’t like links golf. I didn’t like St. Andrews at all when I played in ’78 for the first time.’

Milton Harris, who, since 2018, has been based in Sutton Veny, near Warminster, Wiltshire, was first granted a training licence by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) in 2001. However, in the last decade and a half, Harris, 64, has had what might be politely described as an ‘interesting’ relationship with the governing body. The BHA first objected to Harris holding a training licence in late 2009, on the grounds that he was ‘not a fit and proper person’ to do so. Nevertheless, he continued to train under a temporary licence, with conditions, in 2010 and 2011 but, in December 2011, was made subject of a five-year bankruptcy restrictions order.

Reflecting on his bankruptcy, Harris, certainly one of the more colourful horse trainers, later, ‘Things had gone wrong with personal and financial relationships and I’d got myself in a few scrapes.’ Whatever the reasons, it was not until 2018 that the licensing committee relented and, once again, granted him a training licence. By his own admission, Harris resumed his training career with just eight horses and just two members of staff but, nonetheless, saddled a career-best 56 winners in 2021/22 and was just one shy of the number in 2022/23.

In the 2023/24 season, so far, he has saddled 33 winners and accrued just over £373,000 in prize money, placing him six in the National Hunt Trainers’ Championship. However, he is unlikely to be adding to that total any time soon because, on November 11, 2023, his training licence was suspended, with immediate effect, by the BHA. Any issue only came to light on November 9, 2023, when two of Harris’ intended runners at Ludlow, Balboa and Giddyupadingdong, were withdrawn, having been deemed, rather mysteriously, as ‘not qualified’ by the BHA. Harris is required to attend a licensing committee meeting in January 2024, to face accusations of ‘a breach of the conditions on his licence and related matters’.