Top Ten Sports Drinkers

[notsosilentbob]

1. David Boon
Brian Lara's 400 not out and Jim Laker's 19 wickets in a match are two highly cherished cricket records, but perhaps even more so is the 52 beers Boony is said to have drunk on the plane to England in 1989, beating Rod Marsh's record by four. Apparently he also enjoyed four more quiet ones on the stopover that were not counted.

2. Bill Werbeniuk
Big Bill would drink up to eight pints before each match then roughly one every frame during it. He needed this to stop 'Familial Benign Essential Tremor' or a shaky elbow to you and me.

3. Paul McGrath
McGrath was the biggest of the big drinkers at Manchester United in the 1980s and this carried on throughout his career. Even in the Autumn of his career he is said to have man-marked Alan Shearer while drunk. Frighteningly he also revealed in his autobiography that he once drank a glass of Domestos.

4. Babe Ruth
Not only the best slugger in baseball history but probably the best drinker also. The big man had bourbon with his breakfast every morning and used to boast that he never lost a drinking contest.

5. Colin Smart
After England beat France at Rugby Union in 1982, Smart saw Maurice Colcough down a bottle of cologne not realising that the lock had filled the bottle with wine moments earlier. Not wishing to be outdone, Smart immediately downed his bottle of aftershave and had his stomach pumped that night.

6. John Daly
Drink may not be the number one vice of the 'Wild Thing', that would be gambling with his estimated $50 million losses, but drink probably comes second in a list of his estimated '5000 vices'. Asked what was behind his resurgent form in recent years, Daly said: "I learned you can't drink whiskey and play golf".

7. Tony Adams
It seems incredible that he could marshal the famed back four that led Arsenal to two league titles in three years, while drinking the amount he did. He says that he can hardly remember the run-up to the memorable 1989 League title triumph, due to his refuelling habits at the time.

8. Andy Fordham
The landlord from Woolwich remains one of the biggest names in darts thanks to his 2004 world title and his appearance on Celebrity Fit Club, where he revealed that he often drinks upwards of 25 bottles of Holsten Pils a day.

9. Alex Higgins
The Hurricane's appetite for drink is legendary. On one occasion following a match and 27 shots of vodka he came to a media conference, punched the press officer in the stomach before demanding that Margaret Thatcher and Cecil Parkinson investigate snooker.

10. Jocky Wilson
The site of Jocky playing while supping a pint and smoking a fag was the quintessential image of darts in the 1980s. He was a man for whom preparation was very important, making sure he got the right load on board before he hit the oche. And it usually served him well, helping him to two world titles.

Note: This Top Ten is judged on sportsmen's dalliances with drink during their playing career and not problems with alcoholism after retirement.

[jasonharding]

Flintoff soon to be in there.

possibly Gazza and paul merson