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Are Netflix onto a winner with their new documentary series, Losers, all about some of the biggest perceived losers in the world of sport?

Mornings with Kaye Adams spoke to one of the sportspeople highlighted in the show: former Torquay United footballer Jim McNichol. The story of how he entered into the canon of sport’s greatest ‘losers’ involved a dogged relegation battle ...as well as an actual dog.

‘The dog sunk his teeth into my leg’

Torquay United faced a critical match, which they had to at least draw to avoid relegation. McNichol remembered the events of the day as “a bit unusual to say the least.”

Two-nil down at half-time in , Torquay scored early in the second half and eventually equalised. But it was in pursuit of that equaliser that McNichol experienced a moment that would change Torquay’s fortunes.

“With a couple of minutes to go, I was chasing a ball down the line. There had been a bit of crowd trouble at the bottom end of the ground and a police dog thought I was running directly at a policeman and the dog sunk his teeth into my leg.

“We fortunately managed to get the goal in the injury time that was for me being bitten by the dog — and we stayed up.”

Jim admitted his surprise at the show being called Losers, as Torquay United’s draw propelled the club to a successful couple of years in which they narrowly missed out on play-off promotion.

Jean van de Velde at The Open in 1999

Another of the episodes of the new documentary series focuses on Jean van de Velde’s final hole at The Open in Carnoustie in 1999.

Seen by many as one of the biggest capitulations in sporting history, van de Velde topped the leaderboard as he approached the final hole, knowing a double-bogey 6 would be enough for him to secure the Claret Jug.

A series of misjudged shots, however, led to ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ golf commentator Peter Allis frustratedly saying that van de Velde’s “golfing brain stopped about 10 minutes ago”.

But the French golfer is keen to see the events of the day within a wider context.

“It’s a chapter of life. If that’s the toughest one I have to go through, I’ll take it.”

• Jean van de Velde’s disastrous 18th hole during at Carnoustie