The Sporting Almanac Podcast

Episode 18: The EFL and Football Pyramid - "You don't love the game as much as us".

Football in England runs deep. It lives in the streets where we were raised, in overused but much beloved grassroots pitches, in the terrace chants passed down like heirlooms. It’s stitched into the fabric of families, of towns, of working weeks and weekend rituals.

Before the season begins, there’s always hope - fragile, stubborn, beautiful hope. Som...

Episode 17: The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship - "Where We All Belong"

From the muddy fields of Meath to Croke Park's sacred sod, this episode dives into one of the most fiercely loved and proudly Irish sports: Gaelic football. We explore what makes the game so unique - its rules, its roots, and the deep ties it holds to community and identity.

We trace the story back through time: to the birth of the GAA and its fight to p...

Episode 16: A Boxing Story - Leen Sanders + Oleksandr Usyk vs. Daniel Dubois.

With Oleksandr Usyk and Daniel Dubois set to put their world titles on the line, we take a look at one of the most compelling heavyweight clashes of the year - two talented fighters, shaped by very different paths, meeting in the ring with everything to prove, to win and to lose.

But this week, we’re doing things a little differently.

Boxing is often called ...

Episode 15: The UEFA European Women’s Championship – “Women’s Football Confuses Men”

It’s a story almost as old as football itself: women start playing. People notice. They’re good - really good. Crowds grow, praise swells, more girls join in… and just as momentum builds, the men in suits step in.

With furrowed brows and dubious “health concerns”, they declare the game unfit for women - too rough, too unfeminine, too dangerous for th...

Episode 14: The Tour de France – More than a race. Less than the truth.

“You can't ride the Tour de France on mineral water. You would have to be an imbecile or a crook to imagine that a pro-cyclist who races for 235 days a year can hold the pace without stimulants.”

Jacques Anquetil, five-time Tour de France winner

It is without doubt the greatest cycling race in the world – just don’t ask what’s in the water bottles. Legends are ev...

Episode 13: The Wimbledon Championships - The Noble Pursuit of Immortality

Tennis is a game like no other. With origins in palaces and prisons alike, brought together by good marketing and better timing and allowing women earlier participation than Victorian Britain was famed for, it took only three years from the game being invented for a South-West London croquet club to stake their future on it - and 148 years later, that future ...

Episode 12: The British & Irish Lions - The Power of Four

"Let's be the best at everything that requires no talent."

Paul O'Connell, 2009 Lions Captain.

Enemies in March. Teammates in June.

Once every four years, the British & Irish Lions unite four fierce rivals from two nations under a single red jersey. They set aside history, pride and borders to become something greater - and take that fight across the globe in pursuit of ...

Episode 11: The 24 Hours of Le Mans - Triomphe et Désastre

The history of Le Mans is the history of motor racing. From hosting the first Grand Prix in 1906 to creating the world’s greatest endurance race in 1923, the 24 Hours of Le Mans has been run 92 times over 102 years - and in that time, it has showcased the cutting edge of automotive technology, the sport’s most iconic drivers, and seen some of the greatest races ever.

But it h...

Episode 10: The NBA Finals - Dynasty and Legacy

"I used to joke that if you could bottle all the emotion in a basketball game, you'd have enough hate to fight a war, and enough joy to prevent one."

Bill Russell

Jack and Ben crossover the Atlantic once more to talk about some people even taller than they are. Ahead of next week's NBA Finals, they dive into the stories of legendary ballers, iconic matchups, and how the NBA grew into the...

Episode 9: The UEFA Champions League Final - Football’s Night of Nights

Jack and Ben are back in their wheelhouse this week as they dive into the biggest night in European club football - the UEFA Champions League Final.

From contentious calls to unforgettable comebacks, tactical brilliance to glorious chaos - this is the night where legends rise, dreams shatter, and history unfolds in 90 minutes (or more). Expect goals, drama, and m...

Episode 8: The Monaco Grand Prix - The Jewel in the Formula One Crown

Jack and Ben are in the glamour and glitz of Monaco this week for the 82nd running of the most famous race on the Formula One calendar - The Monaco Grand Prix.

Expect more mentions of crashes and failures than of overtaking as they discuss the merits and criticisms of wide cars racing around narrow streets - it is a race that simply wouldn't exist if it wasn't for ...

Episode 7: The FA Cup - Of Dreamers and Giant Killers

After three weeks over the Atlantic, Jack and Ben are back in Blighty ahead of the 144th Men's and 55th Women's FA Cup Finals.

There's no fairytale like the FA Cup. It is where semi-professional players line up against the gods of the game on equal footing, where one drop of the hip or one act of bravery can make you immortal, and where there are no impossible outcomes if you beli...

Episode 6: The NHL Playoffs and Ice Hockey World Championships – Goals, Goons, Graft and Glory.

This week, we're checking out one of the toughest sports on the planet – ice hockey, home to the brawling, bruising, toothless titans of the rink. Jack and Ben skate through the NHL Playoffs, where 16 teams chase the (quite literally) biggest trophy in the sport: the Stanley Cup. Meanwhile, across the globe, another 16 nations face-off fo...

Episode 5: The Kentucky Derby and the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing - The Greatest Two Minutes in Sports

This week, Jack and Ben are Stateside once again, heading to Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, for the iconic Kentucky Derby. But it’s not just the history of one legendary event they're diving into - they’re also unravelling the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes, as they rein in the facts, tales, and controver...

Episode 4: The NFL Draft - More Than Just a Pick

It’s Draft Day on the Sporting Almanac as Jack and Ben blitz the history of the NFL’s biggest off-field spectacle - from its humble beginnings in a Philadelphia hotel, to its main event status today - throughout war, expansion, relocations and mergers, as it forged dynasties and ended careers all at the same time.

Expect wild stories, big personalities, and sliding door moments that re...

Episode 3: The World Snooker Championship - The Crucible of Dreams

Jack and Ben chalk up for a dive into snooker’s most hallowed ground — the Crucible. That unassuming theatre in Sheffield has seen history made, records fall, and the likes of the Nugget, the Hurricane, the Whirlwind and the Rocket become legends - as it hosts the biggest event in the sports calendar, the World Snooker Championship.

They revisit the tournaments 1985 ...

Episode 2: The Masters - A Tradition Unlike Any Other

From Green Jackets to Golden Bears, from Tigers to Pimento Cheese Sandwiches, this week we take a drive down Magnolia Lane to one of the most iconic courses in the world of golf - The Augusta National, home of The Masters. As the 89th edition of this legendary event tees off, Jack and Ben dive into the setting, the players, and the stories that make the Masters one of sport’s mos...

Episode 1: The Grand National – The Greatest Steeplechase in the World

In our debut episode, we saddle up for the 177th running of the world’s most famous steeplechase – the Grand National. We take a gallop around Aintree’s legendary jumps, relive the underdog triumphs of Bob Everett and Gregalach, the heartwarming tale of Bob Champion and Aldaniti, and, of course, pay tribute to the GOAT – Red Rum.

But it’s not all fairy-tale ending...