Readers respond to the challenge of naming the bespectacled performance of all time
Great bespectacled sporting performances (Letters, 19 December)? Look no further than David Steele, the veteran county professional called up to face the might of Australian fast bowling in 1975. A half-century in his first Test innings, and dogged defence in the remainder of the Ashes series, caught the public imagination to such an extent that “the bank clerk that went to war” was voted BBC sports personality of the year.
Ian Jones
Shrewsbury, Shropshire
• Laurent Fignon raced wearing thin-rimmed, thick-lensed spectacles throughout his professional cycling career, to overall victory in the 1983 and 1984 Tours de France and the 1989 Giro d’Italia. This record, in the most demanding of sports, is matched by a handful of cyclists in the modern era, and none wearing conventional spectacles. His uniquely bookish appearance and Parisian origins set him apart from his fellow roadmen. He was, inevitably, nicknamed Le Professeur.
Robert Lawrence
Oxford