Looking back on a marvellous decade

Ok, so I warned you the blogging could be sporadic, and after a 10-week hiatus it's proved just that.

But here I am again, with a spare half-hour in an action-packed day at journalism's coal-face, attempting to entertain and educate in equal measure.

Happy New year to you all first and foremost, and although it's a little late, to kick-off the blog in 2010 I thought I'd look back on some of my fondest memories of the past decade.

I'll go with a top five and if I miss the obvious, feel free to correct me. All this is from memory, and avoiding chekckng Wikipedia to put facts right.

So here it is, my top five sporting moments of the Naughties, in no particular order...

1) Goran Ivanisevic wins Wimbledon in 2001. It was sport that brings a tear to the eye and I had just started out on my journalism career and had to watch it in the office on a small portable telly with the sound turned down.

Ivanisevic was one of tennis's great characters, and it's great losers. He may as well have been British he lost in that many semi-finals and finals. But after a rain-lashed fortnight the final against Pat Rafter spilled into Monday and the fans wearing their red and white Croatia shirts and their gold of Australia made it a colourful and memorable spectacle.

Ivanisevic getting down on his knees and praying in between match points just made the hair stand on end and when he finally clinched victory and fell to the floor in tears, a lifetime of sweat and toil just poured out of him. A fantastic moment.

2) Spain v Yugoslavia, Euro 2000 group game, Holland. "I've got a funny feeling we're going to be in for a cracker," said John Motson as this final group game kicked off. How right he was. Seven goals, end-to-end attacking and a dramatic late fightback from Spain that saw them eliminate the watching Bulgaria and progress themselves.

It was national football at its best and when Alfonso scored the winner in stoppage time, Motson screamed his name in delight at the perfect finish to a phenomenal 90 minutes.

3) Kelly Holmes, Athens Olympics, 2004. Just pips Usain Bolt in Beijing and Berlin and Great Britain's men's 4x100m relay team in Sydney, and again its like Ivanisevic in that her career before then had been plagued by injury and heartache.

Then she won the 800m Olympic final and a few days later her a late decision to take part in the 1,500m paid off as she defeated her long-time rival Maria Matulo to win the gold. The commentary from Steve Cram was another to put a lump in the throat. "Kelly Holmes, you are the double Olympic champion!"

4) Michael Phelps, 100m butterfly, Rome, 2009. One of the few I was fortunate enough to attend. The World Championships were dominated by swimmers in soon-to-be outlawed polyurethane suits who set 43 world records. Phelps, the greatest swimmer of all time, stuck to his basic speedo suit.

His great rival in the 100m butterfly was California-educated and controversial suit-wearing Milorad Cavic of Serbia, who set the blue touch paper by winning his semi-final in a quicker time and then telling the assembled media that he would beat Phelps in the final.

At 50m, the big-talking Serb led the final from Phelps, and did so with 25m to go. But the American dug into his reserves and in the space of three strokes he pipped Cavic to the line. When in that desperate full flow at the end Phelps looked like he was eating water as he bore down on Cavic.

When the race was won, Phelps turned to the packed stands at the Foro Italico and grabbed his vest, so proving his point that it's all about the swimmer and not the suit they are wearing.

5) Ernie Els wins the Open, Muirfield, 2002. If Colin Montgomerie had have found the fairway with his approach to the 72nd green at Winged Foot in 2006 and won the US Open, that would have made the top five, but as it was, the finest golf moment of the decade was Els' dramatic Open win at Muirfield.

The Big Easy led by two with five to play but as I followed his gallery over those closing holes, listening to John Inverdale jinx it by interviewing his family on my Open Golf radio, Ernie attempted to throw it away. He earned a reprieve by making birdie on the par five 17th and then he and Thomas Levet knocked out Steve Elkington and Stuart Appleby in the four-hole play-off.

Els though prevailed with a sumptuous bunker shot on the fifth extra hole, played with one foot in the bunker and his knee on the bank. I saw him hole his winning putt through the narrowest of gaps in the 10-deep gallery at the side of the green and then be embraced by a great show of sportsmanship from the graceful Frenchman.

So that's my top five, and there was plenty knocking on the door; Federer v Nadal at Wimbledon, Jonny Wilkinson's drop goal in Sydney and Europe's Ryder Cup win at the K Club.

Let me know what you think...