The Sporting Almanac Podcast

Episode 38: The 2025 Sporting Almanac Awards and End-of-Year Review

After eight months, 37 and a half episodes and a surprising number of listeners (we cannot thank you enough), we bring the first season of the Sporting Almanac Podcast to a close in the most fun way we could think of - with an award show, nominees chosen by us, winners voted for by friends of the show and completely unknown to us until revealed during recording.

We d...

Episode 37: The African Cup of Nations

In 1956 when the Confederation of African Football was founded, four African nations were members of FIFA: Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, and South Africa. The first Cup of Nations was played in Sudan between three of these, with South Africa's apartheid supporting Football Association immediately excluded from both CAF and the new tournament, not to return for nearly forty years.

In those forty years,...

Episode 36: The PDC World Darts Championship - "This darts match will make you happy!"

Every Christmas thousands cram into Alexandra Palace in fancy dress to scream in unison at a little black, white, red and green board on the wall. In this episode, we trace how that surreal festive tradition came to be - from darts as a pub pastime, through the birth of the televised World Championship, to the civil war that split the game and cre...

Episode 35: Our Ashes XI (The Ashes, Part 3) - Why We Love Cricket

In Part 3 of our Ashes series, we reflect on almost 30 years of being cricket fans, and the players who’ve inspired us, shaped our love of the game, and delivered moments of both joy and agony.

To do that, we stick on our selectors caps and pick an Ashes XI drawn from our time as fans. Some choices come easily - Shane Warne, Steve Smith, Stuart Broad: shoo-ins, no deb...

Episode 34: Beginnings, Bradman, Bodyline and Benaud (The Ashes, Part 2) - The Birth of a Rivalry.

"Media were never allowed into an Australian dressing room until I became skipper. I changed that and invited them in at the close of play each day, thereby confirming for many administrators they had appointed a madman as captain." - Australia captain and broadcasting legend Richie Benaud.

England have lost the first test, but rather t...

Episode 33: The Ashes Part 1, How to Cricket - A Beginners Guide to a Very Old Sport

“They'd win the first four Tests and we'd try to nick one at the end when they were all drunk.” - Former England captain Nasser Hussain on England's pre-2005 Ashes fortunes.

Cricket, to the uninitiated, can be a very confusing sport. Even to those who are lucky enough to have had the Laws ingrained into them at a young age it still has the ability to...

Episode 32: The Grey Cup - Canadian Football's Grand Finale

Canadian Football is a weird and wonderful thing, especially to those only acquainted with its immensely popular equivalent played south of the border. To an NFL fan, watching the CFL can seem like a fever dream. The pitch is a bit too big, the goalposts are in the wrong place, the endzones look like they need to go on a diet and wide receivers just won't stand still. And t...

Episode 31: The Brazilian Grand Prix - Drama is Only Seconds Away

"I only came back to reality when I saw the checkered flag. That's when I felt immense pleasure in being alive, in being at Interlagos, in my homeland, and seeing my people happy." - Ayrton Senna, speaking about his 1991 Brazilian Grand Prix win.

There is no race on the Formula 1 calendar that disappoints as rarely as Brazil. The Interlagos circuit has played host to s...

Episode 30: The Melbourne Cup - The Race That Stops the Nation

"The Melbourne Cup is the Australasian National Day. It would be difficult to overstate its importance. It overshadows all other holidays and specialized days of whatever sort in that congeries of colonies. Overshadows them? I might almost say it blots them out." - Mark Twain, from his travelogue Following the Equator.

The sport of Horse Racing is built into the very fabr...

Episode 29: Archery World Cup - Every Arrow Tells a Story

“Archery is not about being better than anyone else; it’s about being better than you used to be.” - Unknown

For tens of thousands of years, humans relied on the bow for survival. For thousands of years legendary archers have graced our lore, myth and storytelling. And for hundreds of years, we have taken aim at targets for prize, honour and pride, trying to outshoot our rival...

Episode 28: Super League Grand Final - Men of Steel

“For me, it’s the hardest sport in the world. It takes dedication, discipline and mental strength. You accept constant physical punishment. You push your body right to the limit... It’s too tough for me. Deep down, I would love to be a rugby league player.” - 2012 Tour de France winner and 5-time Olympic gold medallist Sir Bradley Wiggins

Some say it's the last true working class sp...

Episode 27: Major League Baseball Postseason - One, Two, Three Times You're Out...

"Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball." ~ American historian Jacques Barzun.

Baseball is more than a game.

It's memories, individual and collective. It's culture, consciousness and being. America's favourite pastime has been filling stadia for a century and a half, can boast the oldest professional sports league ...

Episode 26: The Ryder Cup - Golf Like No Other

"When you play for so many, it makes you strong." - Seve Ballesteros, Ryder Cup legend.

Team golf hits hard. The roar of a partisan crowd, fists pumping against chests of blue or red, the one shot that changes the momentum and turns the contest on its head, the final putt it comes down to that can win or lose it all. The Ryder Cup is truly golf at its very finest, the best 24 players on ...

Episode 25: The Australian Football League - Making Its Mark Since 1858

Aussie Rules football is old. In fact, it could stake a claim to being the oldest continually existing code of football in the world, and in the Melbourne Football Club boasts the oldest professional football team of any code of football on the planet, predating association football's oldest pro club Notts County by four years.

But the history of similar ball gam...

Episode 24: The Volleyball World Championships - Serve, Pass, Set, Spike, Defend, Rotate, Repeat

At the Sporting Almanac, more often than not we talk about sports invented in Britain and perfected elsewhere, with common threads and familiarity throughout. Not today.

We don't really do Volleyball in the UK, but we are very much the exception. This is a global sport, followed and played by nearly a billion people worldwide and can boas...

Episode 23: The World Athletics Championships - Every Second, SUGOI

"It feels good to be one of the greatest sprinters. You can’t explain what it feels like to get up in the morning knowing you’re one of the best ever."

Usain St. Leo Bolt, 11-time World Championship Gold Medallist and Men's 100m World Record Holder

It’s easy to be cynical about athletics, as you watch human beings push the boundaries of what should be possible. The Wo...

Episode 22: The NFL Regular Season - Madden's Game

"The only yardstick for success our society has is being a champion. No one remembers anything else."

John Madden, Super Bowl XI winning coach, broadcaster and Pro Football Hall of Famer

The richest sports league on the planet, the most elite group of athletic talent in any sport, anywhere, and a competition never far away from controversy or legend.

There are over a million High Schoo...

Episode 21: The US Open Tennis - Arthur Ashe, Althea Gibson and the Power of Tennis

"From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life."

Arthur Ashe, 1968 US Open Champion and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient.

The US Open can be more than just a great sporting occasion. Arthur Ashe became its first men’s champion in the Open Era as an amateur amongst professionals, using his voice and his platform to c...

Episode 20: The Rugby Championship and Women's World Cup

How did Rugby Union make its way to the southern hemisphere? How does the game down south differ from the bruising northern style? And why, exactly, are New Zealand so damn good at it?

This week, we’re serving up a double helping of rugby. With the Rugby Championship kicking off this weekend and the Red Roses gearing up for their date with destiny next Friday, Ben dives headfir...