Table of contents for Winter/Spring 2025 in Pitch

Tea or coffee? A lot of factors in this, time of day, pre- or post-meal, and the weather. I’d say coffee. What was your earliest sporting memory? I played right back for my junior football team. When I was about 12, they put me upfront for a game where I scored and got an assist, I thought that was my moment. I was back to right back the next week. Who was your favourite sportsperson growing up? Alan Shearer felt like the ultimate number 9. Strong, technical, consistent, and a real leader. Did you show any promise on the pitch? There were never any scouts, but I did always start. That could’ve been down to the sparsity of right backs. With £100m who are you signing for your five-a-side team?…

The Tennis Court Author: Nick Pachelli Cover price: £30 Review: Think of tennis courts and most likely you’ll think of the four Grand Slam venues. But as former junior tennis star Nick Pachelli acknowledges, there are roughly half a million tennis courts in the world and in this stunning collection he introduces a memorable selection. Why you should read it: Whatever page you turn to, the photos are spectacular and if you’re looking for your next court to play, you’ll truly be spoiled for choice: a natural cove in Italy or a Himalayan idyll in India, perhaps? You’ll like this if you liked: Centre Court – The Jewel in Wimbledon’s Crown Star rating: Who Darts Wins Author: John Woodhouse Cover price: £16.99 Review: The ghostwriter behind some of the most exceptional…

When mentioning Irish MMA, the immediate train of thought leads to that UFC legend. One that changed the sport and helped Dana White build a global empire worth $11.3 billion. Now, 10 years since the former knocked out José Aldo in 13 seconds at UFC 194, the country that brought us Conor McGregor offers up a new talent. UFC fresher Ian David ‘The Future’ Machado Garry first joined a Zoom call two months before his late-notice fight at UFC 310 in Paradise, Nevada. The 27-year-old was awaiting confirmation of his battle against world number two, Shavkat Rakhmonov of Kazakhstan. “Boxing was the main combat sport in Ireland growing up,” he said at that time, when asked of his nonconventional route into the octagon, not that there is one. “I loved…

Powered by the same engine that ran Assassin’s Creed – assassinations on this occasion replaced by flip tricks – the game was released two years after the American shot to fame at the Turin 2006 Winter Olympics. After creating their rookie snowboarder, players are guided by the flame-haired gold medallist through six mountains in the original gameplay – each featuring up to three different sections: peak, backcountry, and park. The game best captured the look and feel of the sport on Nintendo Wii, with its balance board adding a touch of living-room realism. And yet, despite the best efforts of spin-offs Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage and Shaun White Skateboarding, the game only lasted one season. BRIAN LARA CRICKET PC / SEGA MEGADRIVE Active: 1994–2007 Succeeding Graham Gooch Cricket, Audiogenic…

“I said when he came to us at 14, that if I were a betting man, I’d put money on him playing for England… I didn’t actually do it. But one of the other sports teachers, Mark Shopland, did. He had £100 on him at 100-1.” I’m in conversation with non-gambling former Sussex and Durham keeper-batter, Martin Speight. The now 57-year-old coach may have missed out on a few quid as a side bet, but is nonetheless credited with overseeing the early career of one of England cricket’s current top two ‘best Yorkshiremen’. In this instance, we’re talking about Harry Brook. It’s early in the New Year and although cricket is already going on in many parts of the world, England are in the January lull ahead of the team’s…

PICK-UP KARACHI, PAKISTAN “Having never been to Pakistan, I pelted across a busy highway for this shot, not caring if I was ran over. The derelict buildings frame a game of cricket far removed from how we know it in England. Every part a product of its environment, cricket in Pakistan couples the brilliantly outrageous with the downright ordinary. The rough old ball they were using was somehow swinging both ways and the kid with the bat belted it everywhere. There’s the game and then what it means to those playing it. Pakistan personified.” FORMER SOMERSET, MIDDLESEX & ENGLAND OPENING BAT, NICK COMPTON HIGHLIGHTS THE BEAUTY OF SIMPLICITY: THE ART OF CRICKET MEETS PHOTOGRAPHIC STORYTELLING. Joining us via WhatsApp from Cape Town, Nick Compton is in the city for an…

SAM BOWLES With an eye for a double, the Art Director captures darts champ Luke Littler. PHIL HORTON Shares an insider’s guide to the British Grand Prix, a chapter from his latest book. KIERAN LONGWORTH Previews the Alpine World Champs and profiles Shaun ‘The Flying Tomato’ White. NICK COMPTON Shares his adventurous photography portfolio from the far corners of the world. VAS KUCHUMOVA Illustrates the bulk of our award-winning artwork, starting with Pétanque… PAUL SIMPSON Dives deep into the workings of the EFL over 20 memorable pages before biographing Luke Littler. ROSIE DEAN Illustrator. Artist. Extraordinaire. The design supremo puts these pages together. THOMAS KIPLING To the octagon, the young journo is in conversation with the UFC’s Ian Garry. CHARLIE & HARRY STEBBINGS Co-hosts of the Business of Sport Show,…

At first only notionally proposed as a high-performance four-wheel-drive car in 1977, the Quattro’s inception came in the wake of Audi’s parent company Volkswagen’s Ilitis military vehicle outperforming everything out there when in the snow. Where previously rally cars were either front – or rear-wheel drive – and four-wheel-drives largely the preserve of farmers, Audi was ahead of competitors in their thinking and development when rule changes relaxed, allowing its introduction in 1980. As the initial brainchild of engineer Jörg Bensinger, the name ‘Quattro’ (Italian for ‘four’) became synonymous with Audi’s four-rings, particularly during a production run of the A1 and A2 evolutions from 1980 to 1991. It was when in the dirt, snow, shale, and ice – the most-exacting conditions on the world’s most exacting rally courses – that…

We are talking about the Notre Dame Fighting Irish American Football team programme, to give it it’s full title. Out of the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana. Standing at five-foot-six, weighing just 74kg and ‘too small’ to play college football, walk-on Daniel ‘Rudy’ Ruettiger’s’ singular showing for the Fighting Irish is immortalised in the 1993 motion picture, ‘Rudy’. 10 Hall of Famers hail from Notre Dame. They include Joe Theismann, Jerome Bettis, Earl Lambeau and Joe Montana. 982-344-42 At the time of writing, Notre Dame boasts a win record ranking fourth overall. 13 The number of College Football Championships, sitting them fourth behind Princeton (15), Alabama (16) and Yale (18); Yale last winning in 1927. 77,622 The capacity of Notre Dame Stadium, built in 1930. Previously an Irish Terrier,…

1897–1931 Jack Johnson The first African American heavyweight to fight for and win a world title when ‘slaughtering’ Canada’s Tommy Burns in Sydney in 1908. Such was the prevailing winds at the time that Johnson had to endure fighting 44 opponents to finally get his shot. 1934–1951 Joe Louis The ‘Brown Bomber,’ was heavyweight champion from 1937-1949, defending his title a record 25 times. A ferocious puncher, Louis’ 1938 victory over Germany’s Max Schmeling was held up at the time as a symbol of anti-Nazi resilience. His 66 wins (52 by knockout), also mark this Lafayette-born orthodox-standing legend of the sport as a cultural hero. 1940–1965 Sugar Ray Robinson Born Walker Smith Jnr, May 3, 1921, in Ailey Georgia, he changed his ring name to Ray Robinson when aged 19.…

JIU-JITSU IMPERIAL JAPAN Ground fighting | Submission grappling For a name that translates to ‘Gentle Art’, Jiu-Jitsu is often anything but. It is by far the most popular MMA sport today with the Brazilian variety, bringing victory in tournaments like the UFC which had its first championship won by the infamous Royce Gracie. Invented in the early 1900s by Japanese-born Brazilian judōka Esai Maeda, it was later adapted as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. KUNG FU HAN DYNASTY IMPERIAL CHINA Strikes and reversal moves Kung Fu’s name is a modern misnomer, its actual name being Wushu. The discipline came into its own with the rise of ‘Kung Fu Flicks’ in the late 70s, popularised by its most famous practitioner, Bruce Lee. It is an all-encompassing martial art, covering weapon or unarmed combat and…

Sports, like countries, need heroes to define them. Luckily for darts, it has recently acquired just such a hero: Luke ‘the Nuke’ Littler. For the benefit of any (fortunate) readers who have been stranded on a desert island for the past three months, this Lancashire lad became, in January, the youngest ever winner of the World Darts Championships at the tender age of 17, beating the previous youngest champion Michael van Gerwen, in the final at London’s Alexandra Palace. It says something about this portly prodigy’s genius that his triumph was deemed both unprecedented and inevitable. He had started playing darts as an 18-month-old toddler (on a magnetic board bought from a pound shop by his father Anthony Buckley), scored his first 180 when he was six, won his first…

In January 2020, my 15-year-old son Patrick went to a football game and never came home. A Swindon Town fan, he’d gone to watch Tottenham, because he could. He collapsed seeking the last train out of Marylebone and died, suddenly, unexpectedly, and still, without cause. Two weeks later, my dad, suffering with cancer and with his sense of purpose desperately unravelled, gently died too. Eventually, I wrote a book, and its evolution was unexpected and a little unconventional. I wrote, amid utter grief and after a couple of years, ‘Red Balloons – A Father, A Son, A Memoir’ took tentative flight, and gently spread its wings. It was a beautiful journey and only now am I able to look back and reflect on why and maybe how I wrote it.…

1. Bretby BARBOUR £109 Oft seen hanging out the back of Range Rovers at Twickers, it’s actually quite smart and well-tailored. 2. Men’s Classic Retro-X PATAGONIA £160 Warm, windproof, and akin to ’80s outdoor design. Best in the hills. 3. Trench Tank Panel V Vest Sand REWORKED 348 £139 Hand-reconstructed unissued 1980s Italian trench coat with ’90s military liners. One of a kind. 4. Men’s 1996 Retro Nuptse Gilet THE NORTH FACE £250 Named after Everest’s neighbour and visually iconic as Chomolungma itself. Wear with anything. 5. Conduit Down Vest ARC’TERYX £400 Top of the budget. This lightweight goose-down vest is equally suited to the pub as it is Snowdonia. 6. Country Sport Silent Padded Gilet SOLOGNAC £24.99 Perfect for dog walking, shooting, and other country exploits. At a fair…

22.5m The metropolitan population. 1968 Held the Olympic Games. Altitude contributed to Bob Beamon’s ‘pit-clearing’ 8.9m long jump world record. Baseball team Diablos play at the Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú. It’s the city’s only new stadium to be built in the last 50 years, seating around 20,576 fans. For the Wrestling, visit the Arena Coliseo The Lucha Libre variety. With 23,000 other grapple fans. €96.9m Club América is the most popular and most valuable outfit playing in the Mexican national league (Liga MX). 1:17.74 Held at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in October, F1 first raced here in 1963. It’s a 71-lap race with Valtteri Bottas holding the track record. 7,200 feet above sea level. Estadio Azteca is the largest stadium in Latin America. And has hosted two World Cup Finals.…

So, what are the FIS World Ski Championships? Second only to winter’s five-ring circus in terms of public interest – and not to be confused with the seasonal FIS Ski World Cup – the biennial FIS World Ski Championships brings together 600 athletes from 75 nations, all gathering on one near-glass-like ice decline to take part in their respective gravity ’n Red Bull-fuelled disciplines over two weeks. February 2025 will be the 10th time Austria hosts the Championships and Saalbach’s second major competition in 12 months, after the resort town hosted the Ski World Cup Finals in March 2024. The Zwölferkogel (rounded summit) being the single slope where the skis meet the snow. Starting on February 4 and running for 12 days, skiers partake in combined, downhill, slalom, giant slalom,…

Shaun White is a figure so recognisable in his discipline that he almost instantaneously changed, and later became, the face of snowboarding for the near-two decades he was active on the halfpipe. His ‘bringing baggy back’ sleeper-build-swagger – equipped with well-worn cargos and decorative American flags – took the sport and its image into the millennium. First entering the public eye through boarding, later skateboarding, music, and just about anything that involves travelling sideways. That recognisability was delivered through a video game, red-carpet celebrity, fashion, and everything else in-between in a not-so-neat five-foot-seven package. Winning 10 Winter X Games gold medals between 2003 and 2013, it’s hard to think of an individual who has dragged their sport forward, in modern times, like White – as the solo player at the…

Blackpool FC LEAGUE: EFL League One NICKNAME: The Tangerines FOUNDED: 1887 The Tangerines biggest star was ‘The Wizard of Dribble’, Sir Stanley Matthews, who led Blackpool to their only FA Cup victory in 1953 – fondly remembered as the ‘Matthews Final’ in honour of his performance that day. Stanley went on to be the inaugural recipient of the Ballon d’Or in 1956. Boston United FC LEAGUE: National League NICKNAME: The Pilgrims FOUNDED: 1933 The Pilgrims’ nickname references the Pilgrim Fathers who famously departed England to settle in America and find the city of Boston, Massachusetts. In 2004 the non-league side made a shock-announcement when they unveiled former England midfielder Paul Gascoigne as player-coach. His reign at Jakemans Community Stadium lasted just three months – and Boston finished 16th. Bonnyrigg Rose…

“The energy here is just spectacular and there’s nothing quite like it anywhere else,” says Lewis Hamilton. The expansive Silverstone venue, roughly halfway between London and Birmingham, is where it all started for the Formula 1 World Championship, on May 13, 1950. Silverstone is the home grand prix for seven of the ten teams – and by extension where the bulk of personnel stay – and of Formula 1 itself, which is based in Britain and has its main offices in St James’s Market, just a short walk from Piccadilly Circus in central London. Britain has a rich history in Formula 1. The country has produced more drivers than any other nation in the sport’s history: 145. More race wins: over 300, which is 100+ more than any other country.…

When Texas ‘billionaire’ Allen Stanford was handed a 110-year jail term in January 2012, as punishment for a perceived $7bn investment fraud, it effectively closed the door on one of the most bizarre episodes in English cricket history. The governing body was, at the time, desperately chasing business kudos and financial redress after turning down the opportunity to be part of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2008. At the helm of the board’s decision-making was chairman Giles Clarke and chief executive David Collier. With England players increasingly expressing their attraction to the golden pavement now heading inexorably towards Mumbai, Delhi and Rajasthan, enter Stanford. And more particularly his promise of untold wealth and easy prize money. When Stanford, the former chairman of Stanford International Bank, landed a branded helicopter…