In a New Year Honours’ list dominated by Olympic figures, headed by the widely trailed knighthood for the 2008 SJA Sportsman of the Year Chris Hoy, cricket writer and broadcaster Christopher Martin-Jenkins’s lifetime’s work in the game was also recognised with the MBE.
The honours list, published today, also features a CBE for Paul Potts, the PA executive chairman, months after the news agency marked its 140th anniversary.
Martin-Jenkins, the former BBC cricket correspondent and Cricketer magazine editor, stood down as The Times‘s cricket correspondent in May this year, although he continues his radio commentary work and writing columns.
Potts, who began his journalism career at the Sheffield Star, also worked at the News of the World and Daily Express before joining PA in 1995.
Hoy’s knighthood was a double celebration for the triple gold medal-winning cyclist: his mother, Carol, was made MBE for her work on sleep-related illnesses. It is the first time that a mother and son have been recognised in the same honours round. Carol Hoy’s mother, Isa Reid, was made MBE 20 years ago for her work as chair of the Multiple Sclerosis Society.
All of Britain’s Olympic gold medallists from Beijing were also honoured: canoeist Tim Brabants and 400m runner Christine Ohuruogu get MBEs, while two, Ben Ainslie and Bradley Wiggins, get CBE.
The SJA’s Sportswoman of 2008, Rebecca Adlington, despite matching Kelly Holmes’s double gold medal feat from Athens four years ago which was recognised with a damehood, receives an OBE with five other Olympic champions.
Eleanor Simmonds, the 14-year-old double Paralympic swimming gold medallist, receives an MBE, making her the youngest person – and first minor – to receive an honour.
It was not just the athletes who won recognition either: David Brailsford and David Tanner, the performance directors who steered the British cycling and rowing teams, both gained CBEs.
Lewis Hamilton, the 2007 SJA Sportsman of the Year, gets an MBE for becoming the youngest driver to win the Formula 1 world championship.