Dave, agree on the personality thing. They should just call it Sports Person of the Year or something. We don't know any of these sports stars' real personalities anyway.

However, Giggs is a ridiculous decision as winner, and just proves what I've said for many years - the majority of the general public are stupid. Yeah, he may have achieved all those things you've mentioned this year, but he only played about half of United's games in their league winning season, and Vidic, Van Der Sar, Ronaldo, Ferdinand, Rooney and probably even Darren Fletcher had more influence on the team's achievements than he did. He only played in the CL final because Fletcher was suspended.

Of the shortlist, he is last in terms of achievement in this year. The closest to him is maybe Button (in the best car whereas Giggs was in the best team), but at least Button did actually drive in every race. He shouldn't even have made the shortlist though, Wiggins should have been in ahead of him definitely.

I've got nothing against him, and this isn't an anti-United feeling (honestly). He's been an outstanding player over his career, and is still very good now at the age of 36?? You never see him hitting the front pages of the tabloids, and he's an excellent example of how to conduct yourself in the public eye that any youngster (like yourself Dave) could learn from. However, he was not the best player in the Premiership last season, and he not been the best sportsman this year either which is what the award should be about. I haven't felt so annoyed since David Beckham beat Ellen MacArthur to the award back in 2001 (I think).

The Team of the Year award was also a joke.

England Mens Cricket Team - won the Ashes, lost away to West Indies, hammered in pretty much every one day series they played, lost a T20 World Cup game to Holland, although still made it through to the next round when they went out (think they won 1 out of 4 matches during the comp?)
England Womens Cricket Team - won the Ashes, won the World Cup, won the T20 World Cup, pretty much beat everyone put in front of them.

Who are the sporting "experts" who decided the men should get the award?

Not a fair comparison Nath. The English ladies cricket team get way more funding than any of the other countries so in reality some of the England players are full time cricketers which none of the other countries have. Plus its really only Australia and NZ that even take it remotely serious. I think England's men deserved the title, the Ashes was the only series this year that anyone really cares about, and they won that, albeit against a weak Aussie team. By the end of the year they are a far better side than they started 2009. You also forget they won a one day series in South Africa this year, only the 2nd team ever to do that as well.

Some interesting stats from the voting. These were the votes cast last night.......

Giggs 151842
Button 96770
Ennis 80469
Cavendish 55960
Tweddle 38907
Daley 36929
Murray 19936
Strauss 17237
Haye 13916
Idowu 4507

Total = 516473 votes cast.

2008 votes were......

Hoy 283630
Hamilton 163864
Adlington 145924

Total votes were 718474

So, 200,000 fewer votes this year, and Giggs total would only just have beaten 3rd-placed Adlington last year. Did the BBC make a mistake pitting it against the X-Factor final (which polled 10m votes, although over a 24 hour period)?

I know you will think I'm biased but I would have voted for Giggs last night and I take offence at suggestions its because I'm a "stupid" Man U fan. I appreciate that there are lots of other views on what this award should be about and to be honest I laughed when I first saw him on the list. However, the more I thought about it the less I felt that the others were as deserving to be this year's "Sports personality". I think that passing the records Giggs has is a great achievement this year and obviously that isn't a one-off feat like winning a world championship. The fact that he has done it whilst still inspiring the team (albeit not in every game) and acting with such professionalism makes the perfect package.

Contrast with Button/Haye/Strauss who have had one-off achievements this year but haven't really dominated. (Plus I'm starting to get annoyed by Button's arrogance as if the world title was "coming home" to him after all these years).

Cav would have won hands down if he had won the Green jersey but his time will come.
Ennis is a good shout but again I would suggest that the lack of Sotherton/Kluft etc meant she won an event she was favourite in by default.
Tweddle and Daley just unfortunately aren't in high-profile sports (and Daley only won his world title because divers with higher degrees of difficulty fluffed their dives).

As I said at the top, the problem with this award is that everyone has different views about what makes a winner. I don't think its just about the best one-off achievement by a British sportsman this year but others do so we'll agree to disagree. I'm with the 150,000 from Surrey though.

I love a good old debate. Eakes, I take your point on the women's cricket team, which I of course didn't know. Puts their achievements into a bit more perspective. However, I think I'd still pick them ahead of the men's team myself.

TBC Ben, let's be clear. I did not label Man U fans as stupid. I said that most of the general public are. Obviously there's a fair few Man U fans in there, but there's exceptions to every rule.

I can see what you're saying, but I still think your reasons for voting for Giggs sound more like a lifetime achievement award than anything else. I'm not sure what all these records are (appearance records, league titles?), and I guess one of the problems is that the title can be interpreted in different ways. I've always looked at it in terms of achievements in the sporting year, but thinking back, I'm sure many people voted for Redgrave when he won it as it was his 5th gold, and that takes into account what he did in the previous 16 years. However, for me, Redgrave was still the top man in his event during that year, whereas Giggs wasn't IMO. Should Beckham be in the running next year if he scores in the World Cup, or goes past Shilton's caps record even if he's just come off the bench in every England game and played a bit for Galaxy and Milan?

You can probably pick holes in the argument for any of them to win this year. I didn't vote in the end as I really couldn't pick one person who I thought was above all of the others.