Tag: football

New Year, New You?

New Year, new you. How’s that going for everybody? I’m not really one for New Years Resolutions. If you want to change something then for me do it in the moment, why wait? Last year after a health scare and doing a full MOT it became obvious to me that I needed to change. 

Remember that old saying, ‘Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will. We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the game.’ So the game I was playing needed to change. You’re not getting any younger gets levelled at me, which is fair enough. But can I just check something, am I the only one who gets new knee or hip adverts come up on social media? The infinite amount of walking apps I receive too and also  the old fella doing his exercises sat on a chair, cheek! I’ve had a gym membership at Viva gym in Son Fusteret Palma for quite a while now. I use it when the boys are at football training in the evenings. I say ‘use it’ as that’s not entirely true. It’s a winter thing as in the summer we’re too busy at Pirates. I had been going regularly before Christmas and made a point of going as soon as I got back from holiday. Having Christmas and then a holiday isn’t a great combination if losing weight is on your agenda. I walked in last Monday evening to a gym that was packed with people of all shapes and sizes. Yes it was obviously the new year resolution brigade out in force. Some of them obviously had got new gym wear or new trainers as a present and were there to show them off. I wonder how long they will last? It’s all down to how much you want it. For me, I’m going to go as often as I can for as long as I can and hopefully see a difference. 

Splitting my work and family time for me now is more important than ever. I love watching my boys grow up and change. Regular readers will know I have two boys, Jacob and Jude. Jacob is 18 and in his last year of school and Junior football and Jude who is 14. They are like chalk and cheese. Jacob has been working with me at Pirates for a couple of years and is a grafter. Try telling his Mum that, because at home he’s completely the opposite. It will be interesting to see what career path he will take after this summer season. We still have to push him into the shower after football training or a match and he has no interest in fashion, as a football shirt will do. Whereas Jude will shower before and after a game and will dress immaculately even if we’re just going to Lidl. The difference in them though does make it interesting to watch them grow and change. Jude in particular should be my motivation as over the past year he has lost 25kgs. He did it with the help of a professional nutritionist and his own will power. Without doubt it’s helped him from a confidence point of view both in his football and his own personality. I’m very proud of my two boys and look forward to seeing then grow further. 

During the pandemic we decided to get ourselves a dog. It’s a big undertaking as to be honest it’s like having another child. Beau our Labrador has become part of the family now and for my Wife and I gives us an opportunity to get out walking. Thanks to Montaire Labradors where we got Beau from who’ve been a great help. 

Lastly and not on any purpose, is my long suffering Wife, Rachael. Who else would put up with us three or four now for all these years? She has done an amazing job with her theatre school over the last 15 years even managing to get through the pandemic. So well that the school that she does her classes in on a Saturday asked her to become their drama teacher a couple of years ago. She also gets a special mention this week because it’s her 50th birthday. Guess what? Work and football have got in the way of us celebrating this week but hopefully there’s a gap between games that we can celebrate this weekend. 

Happy Birthday Rachael, we all love you and thank you for all you do for us. 

Richie is the MD at Pirates, the islands number one night out featuring Adventure, Reloaded and Gringos.

Follow him on Twitter @DadTaxi1 & Instagram @dad.taxi or feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com 

It’s a Public Vote

I grew up watching Sports Personality of the Year. It was one of the programmes I always looked forward to at the end of the year. Now I’m showing my age here as this was before satellite tv was invented. So you could watch most sporting events on terrestrial tv. My earliest memory of a winner was probably John Curry the ice skater who won in 1976. By the way I was 10 years old for those asking. 

Since the invention of Sky it became harder for the BBC to show highlights of sport that they didn’t televise. This meant the programme wasn’t as good as it used to be and as I’ve got older I’ve tended not to watch it so much.

I have to be honest and look up who won last year’s event and it was England women’s footballer Beth Mead. She was the player of the tournament and top scorer at Euro 2022, where the Lionesses defeated Germany in the final at Wembley to win England’s first major women’s football trophy.

The 27-year-old also became the first women’s footballer to win the award.

This year another England women’s footballer won, their goalkeeper Mary Earps. Leading to a few people criticising why she won if she and England didn’t actually win the World Cup after losing to Spain in the final. 

Before we look at whether she was deserving or not let’s look at the criteria and the panel who drew up the shortlist as it’s something I had to look up.

The criteria of the shortlist should be that they,

• Reflect UK sporting achievements on the national and/or international stage;
• Represent the breadth and depth of UK sports; 
• Take into account the ‘impact’ of the person’s sporting achievement beyond the sport in question.

The industry panel for this year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year included former Lioness and Euro 2022 winner Ellen White, ex-Olympian Colin Jackson, Paralympian Ellie Simmonds and former Scotland rugby union international Chris Paterson.

Sports journalists David Coverdale (Daily Mail), Rob Maul (The Sun) and Charlotte Harpur (The Athletic) were on the panel alongside Olympian Katherine Grainger, now Chair of UK Sport.

Representing the BBC were director of sport Barbara Slater, head of sport content Philip Bernie and Sports Personality of the Year executive producer Gabby Cook.

The Panel were given an extensive list of the top sportspeople from 2023 Including information on their achievements, provided by the production team of Sports Personality of the Year. The Panel were also able to consider other potential candidates who were not on the list. 

They chose, Stuart Broad (cricket), Frankie Dettori (horse racing), Alfie Hewett (wheelchair tennis), Katarina Johnson-Thompson (athletics) Rory Mcllroy (golf) and Mary Earps (Football)

On the night itself the award goes to the sportsperson whose sporting actions have most captured the UK public’s imagination during 2023. There’s an important word in that last sentence “public”. Let’s not forget it’s a public vote and they decide who wins. It’s a bit like a general election if you feel so passionately about something then use your vote. Two of the people who’ve been so critical of the winner have been Journalist Piers Morgan and former footballer Joey Barton. I wasn’t surprised about Barton as his views on pretty much everything are left field but I was surprised about Piers. Everyone as always is entitled to their opinion as long as you don’t get personal, which Barton in particular did. Interestingly though when asked, neither did vote so that sums it up for me. 

Back to the winner Mary, she also won the World Cup tournament’s Golden Glove, the Best Women’s Goalkeeper at FIFA’s The Best awards and was named England Women’s Player of the Year. She stood up against Nike who wouldn’t release a replica shirt with her name on and when they eventually bowed to pressure she sold out twice in both October and December.

A thoroughly deserving winner in my eyes. 

Take care everybody and can I take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy New Year. 

Richie is the MD at Pirates, the islands number one night out featuring Adventure, Reloaded and Gringos.

Follow him on Twitter @DadTaxi1 & Instagram @dad.taxi or feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com