Queen Elizabeth II was British sport’s most dutiful servant and also its star attraction

Updated 09/09/2022 at 14:32 GMT

After the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, aged 96, on Thursday, Ian Chadband pays tribute to Her Majesty’s sense of duty in supporting the nation’s pastimes, be it polo or pigeon racing. It was that sense of duty that made her both British sport’s most dutiful servant and also its star attraction.

Bobby Moore receives the Jules Rimet World Cup trophy from the Queen of England after beating West Germany in the final in 1966

Image credit: Getty Images

By many accounts, beyond her unquenchable passion for equestrianism, and horse racing in particular, the Queen wasn’t actually the most avid fan of all sports.

There were some she could take - motor racing was one of her fancies - and evidently others she could happily leave.

Take FA Cup finals. She bypassed them year after year once she’d presented the trophy to Southampton’s Peter Rodrigues back in 1976. After all, the joke went, she’d seen it all after watching the Saints beat Manchester United.

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Yet, as in so many other walks of her extraordinary life, the Queen understood implicitly her duty in supporting the nation’s pastimes, be it polo or pigeon racing.

A figurehead at 70 different sports organisations - yes, it really did include the North Road Championship Club for pigeon fanciers - there was not one which her patronage could not enhance.

For here was someone who was both British sport’s most dutiful servant while also being its star attraction.

Indeed, when you gaze back at defining stories of British sport over her extraordinary reign, how many of those plot lines were gilded simply by her just being there?

The 1953 Matthews FA Cup final, Gordon Richards’ Coronation Derby win on Pinza that same year, the 1966 World Cup final, Virginia Wade’s 1977 Wimbledon win, the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony, countless Commonwealth Games … sporting pictures framed for ever in the mind’s eye with the Queen at the epicentre.

Look at Bobby Moore, after wiping his hands so as not to sully her pristine white gloves, about to collect the gleaming Jules Rimet from the dazzling yellow-clad monarch.

What a picture; a young sporting king and a nation’s Queen freeze-framed in one perfect moment.

Or that day when Wade convinced herself she couldn’t dare lose the Wimbledon final because Her Majesty was coming to see her play in her Silver Jubilee year, and the pair miraculously converged as a triumphant, vivid study in pink on Centre Court.

And how could anyone forget Her 86-year-old Majesty parachuting into the stadium from her helicopter, with a Mr Bond by her side, to kick start the greatest Olympics of all?

Twenty years before she presented Wimbledon’s Venus Rosewater Dish to the victorious Wade, the Queen carried out the same duty in 1957 and the recipient was Althea Gibson, the first Black athlete to win the women’s title at Wimbledon.

It was a moment that mattered far beyond sport. “Shaking hands with the Queen of England, was a long way from being forced to sit in the coloured section of the bus,” as Gibson was to reflect.

It meant more to athletes if the Queen was there. Many of them, international superstars themselves, were left simply star-struck.

America’s finest swooned, be it Orioles baseball legend Cal Ripken Jr. meeting her at a MLB game, or hockey’s GOAT Wayne Gretzky escorting her down the red carpet at an NHL match.

Even Muhammad Ali, his brother once recalled, was so enamoured with the Queen, who he’d jump at the chance to meet whenever possible, that he was desperate to box at Buckingham Palace - with Her Majesty at ringside. Alas, even Don King couldn’t have pulled off the 'Punch-up at the Palace'.

Dennis Lillee, the bristling, macho face of Aussie cricket, famously melted into being a big kid, saying "G’day, Queen" before asking for her autograph at the Melbourne Centenary Test in 1977 - and, even more famously, getting turned down.

Lillee, who did later get sent his dream signature by the Palace at the Queen’s prompting, explained in his autobiography: “I asked because she was the ultimate hero to me, she was 'our' Queen.”

That same sentiment emerged from so many of the tributes from the sports world that emerged following her death on Thursday. When Roger Federer, sport’s most elegant and graceful practitioner, enthuses about her elegance and grace living on in history, it said a lot.

As did the emotional tribute from Kadeena Cox, the Paralympic star who was handed the Commonwealth Games baton by the Queen last year at the start of its journey to Birmingham. It told of another generation of sportsmen and women from the social media age, still held spellbound.

“OMG, RIP the beautiful Queen,” she said. "Longest reigning monarch. Queen Elizabeth you was amazing and always wore your beautiful outfits with your amazing smile. So grateful I got to meet you on more than one occasion and be part of your jubilee parade! Rest in paradise.”

The Queen threw her weight behind 18 editions of the Commonwealth Games during her reign. If it hadn’t been for her diligent support and promotion over the years, would the event ever have survived and thrived?

But, of course, it was in equestrianism and racing where the Queen didn’t just enhance the story - she was the story. Owner, breeder, supporter, patron, accomplished horsewoman herself, mother to an Olympian, wife to a champion carriage driver … this was her pleasure and her escape.

“I enjoy breeding a horse that is faster than other people’s,” she once explained in a BBC documentary.

“I enjoy going racing but I suppose, basically, I love horses - and the thoroughbred epitomises a really good horse to me.”

And when her really good horses were at their best, her face was bathed in a joy that couldn’t be forced. Did she ever look happier than when Estimate won the 2013 Ascot Gold Cup? And it was impossible not to smile with her.

Because perhaps it was as that great Aussie Lillee always said - ‘our’ Queen really was a hero to the sports world.