2008 sport review: Mike Walters' Top 10 moments of the year

Over the holiday period the Daily Mirror sports writers will be taking a look back over the significant moments of the past year - and revealing some of their stories behind the stories.

Today: Mike Walters chooses his top 10 sporting moments from 2008.

10) Ricky Ha-Ha-Hatton
When the music stops and he decides it's time to quit boxing, a glittering career awaits 'Hitman' Hatton as a stand-up comic - no joking. I went to see the first date of his debut tour in Stevenage, and Britain's most dynamic fighter had them rolling in the aisles. Try this one for size: "If you came home and found Mike Tyson in bed with your wife, you'd tuck him in."

9) Don't mess with our Tutu
Archbishop Demond Tutu delivered the Cowdrey Lecture, MCC's showpiece homage to the spirit of cricket, and granted the man from the Mirror an audience he will never forget. Best moment, by far, was the squirming and awakward shuffling of feet as Tutu recalled the day he was was refused entry to the Lord's pavilion during the England-South Africa Test in 1994... because his clergyman's dog collar did not conform to MCC's jacket-and-tie dress code.

8) Deano's Tiger feat
Always nice to be there when a bit of history is made, and Hull's 130-year wait to dine out at English football's top table was ended by a goal worthy of the occasion. Dean Windass, teed up by Fraizer Campbell, established volleyed the play-off final winner against Bristol City which took the Tigers into the Premier League for the first time and cemented Windass as Hull's angel in Humber folklore.

7) The real McHoy
No apologies for including another British Olympic cycling triumph in my top 10 - because there were so many of them in Beijing. Sir Chris Hoy's hat-trick of gold medals was a deserving reward for a phenomenal athlete and an impressive character off the track, and my view of his individual sprint win against compatriot Jason Kenny, from inside the velodrome track, provided a real insight into the sheer speed of these magnificent men on their flying machines.

6) Norman's conquest falls short
For three days at the Open in Birkdale, it looked as if 53-year-old Greg Norman would strike a devastating blow for the middle-aged by becoming the most, er, experienced winner of a Major. Fortified by the support of his wife, former Wimbledon tennis champion Chris Evert, the Great White Shark sustained his challenge into the final round until defending champion Padraig Harrington's brilliant back nine broke his spirit.

5) Reading's phantom goal
Exceptional only for its fraudulence and crass refereeing, Reading's opening goal in the 2-2 draw at Watford in September - wrongly debited to John Eustace as an own goal - made a whole generation of football fans believe in ghosts. Amazingly, referee Stuart Attwell and linesman Nigel Bannister are both still at large after the worst decision of all time. Never mind respect for refs - it would help if they didn't insult the intelligence of supporters and players like this.

4) The greatest Wimbledon final
In fading light barely fit for mining coal, Rafael Nadal inflicted Roger Federer's first defeat in a Grand Slam final after five sets of unrivalled drama and intensity. Federer fought back from two sets down only to lose his crown as the clocked ticked towards 9.30pm, the latest-ever finish to a final at the All England Club - and surely the most exciting. The 1st Battalion Housewives were swooning about it deep into the night on Radio Mate FM phone-in shows.

3) The mule train to Moscow
While 50,000 Chelsea and Manchester United fans delivered a carbon jackboot to the ozone layer with an unprecedented airlift to Russia for the Champions League final - at up to £2,000 a head - the Mirror's intrepid rail traveller made the trip to Moscow for just £268.84. The sleeper from Cologne had its moments, notably when my fellow inmate served up luncheon meat which looked and tasted like dog food for lunch, but Red Square looked great after 48 hours on the tracks.

2) Beefy's charity walk
Out of a curious sense of adventure, or loyalty to Mirror columnist Sir Ian Botham's charitable instincts, or both, I joined English cricket's greatest all-rounder for every step of his latest trek for Leukaemia Research. Nine towns and cities in nine days, 140 miles of footslog, £1 million raised - and I had the blisters and sore shins to prove it, even if my walking style was straight from Peter Kay's treadmill in that Amarillo video.

1) Nicole Cooke strikes gold in Beijing
Cooke began Team GB's Olympic gold rush by winning the women's cycle road race in a dramatic sprint finish on the Great Wall of China in teeming rain. It would have been heartbreaking to get utterly drenched in a monsoon to watch a gallant Brit miss out on the medals, so when the Princess of Wheels crossed the line with a triumphal scream, I ended up high-fiving the man from the Daily Mail in celebration that our 90-minute road journey from Beijing had proved worthwhile.

I wish I'd been there
After sharing many of his finest moments in my stint as the Mirror's cricket correspondent, including the 2005 Ashes and historic Test series wins in the West Indies and South Africa, I wish I had been at Michael Vaughan's tearful abdication when he turned in his badge as England captain - not only to tell him face-to-face that he did a fantastic job, but also to tell him the blame for England's dip in fortunes lay nearer coach than captain.

Tomorrow: Daily Mirror reporter James Nursey picks his own sporting highlights of the year