Think of the best sports theme tunes in British television history. There are a few classics, right? Now name one that didn't originate on the BBC. It's not so easy. Because, whatever else they may have got wrong, the Beeb have an exemplary record in assigning a piece of music to a sport. We've got the old band back together again to remember summer Saturdays gone by and the lost innocence of our sporting youth.

Remember Grandstand, kids? It was a kind of umbrella programme that tied together various sporting events taking place on a Saturday afternoon. One minute you'd be watching horse racing at Newmarket, then rugby at Twickenham, followed by the studio-based Final Score.

Composed by Keith Mansfield, its theme is a musical signifier for sport. Loads of sport. Some sports you like, some you don't. Do I want to watch these overweight men throwing darts? Who cares, there's the Grandstand theme again – let's get some sport.

Launched in 1958, the show lasted nearly half a century before being phased out, ending in January 2007. The BBC blamed the increased use of interactive and online services for its demise, placing Grandstand alongside top-shelf porn and human patience as 'things that have been killed by the internet'.

The laid-back, getting-pissed-in-the-sun attitude of cricket fans (and some players) is perfectly exemplified by the BBC's Test Match theme. 'Soul Limbo' was the title track from Booker T. & the M.G.'s eighth album, but it's now universally referred to as 'the cricket music'. So sit back, pop open a bottle of those little stubby lagers you can buy from supermarkets, and watch some men slowly going about a sport – with bats.

Skiing! I've never been skiing and have no intention of ever doing so as I'd blatantly break some bones and wipe out a group of school children. But man does the Ski Sunday theme make it seem appealing! That jaunty beat, the feeling-so-free strings; I could really go for some skiing right now. Later on proceedings get a bit off-piste, briefly sounding like the theme from a 1970s American cop show. But with that done we're back on the snow and skiing! On a Sunday! Yeah!

Snooker is full of weird juxtapositions, so the BBC's theme fits the mould perfectly. It's jaunty, upbeat and a bit raucous, exactly the opposite of what follows when the sallow-skinned men begin slowly knocking coloured balls around that sweet green table, like children batting balloons about a meadow.

The track is an instrumental titled 'Drag Racer' and was written by the Doug Wood Band. In 1984 it was released as part of the 'BBC Snooker Themes EP' which, we shit you not, is an entirely genuine piece of sporting ephemera.

You don't have to be a Formula 1 fan to know this one. If you've ever been go-karting for a stag doo you'll have heard the sport's theme music played afterwards as you spray your mates with £3 champagne and wonder what sort of hell a pub crawl through rural Yorkshire is going to be.

The track is of course Fleetwood Mac's 'The Chain' and has become synonymous with speed. Which is funny, because the first three minutes of the actual song are a fat slice of plodding acoustic-guitar-led seventies rock. It's not until that bass kicks in that things get serious: the building drums, the screaming guitar, it's enough to get your pulse up and the adrenaline flowing. Or maybe that's just the stag night entertainment beginning to take effect.

Prepare to be impressed: the theme music for the BBC's Wimbledon coverage was composed by the very same man who penned the Grandstand intro. Oh musical genius, thy name be Keith Mansfield! And it doesn't end there: Keith also contributed to U.S TV sports coverage and has more recently been sampled by Gnarls Barkley and Fatboy Slim. Fatboy bloody Slim!

Titled 'Light and Tuneful', it has a bouncy pomp to it that conjures up thoughts of strawberries and cream, grass banks named after tennis players, and Cliff Richard singing in the rain like a lost child crying for its mother in the supermarket. Don't worry, she'll find you one day, Cliff.

Surely the most famous theme tune, the Match of the Day music is arguably the worst of a brilliant bunch. Any fondness for it is more to do with how in love we are with the free-to-air football coverage that follows. You like the Ski Sunday tune in spite of the sport that follows – and that's far more impressive.

Written by Barry Stoller, it became the show's theme tune in 1970 and is now the only piece of music associated with MOTD. And it's hard to deny that there's something reassuring about the fact that such an old tune remains in use today. No modern remix or alternate version with Robbie Savage rapping over the top. No, the same piece of so-so music they had 45 years ago. While the soul might have dropped out the bottom of the British game and destroyed everything that your granddad held dear, at least this remains unchanged. This and Gary Lineker's eternally youthful face.