(estimated 15 minute read time)
As the curtain closes on the year, we’ve taken a look back at the year in sport – a light-hearted recap on those sporting moments you will simply not forget. From Blackmore breaking the glass ceiling at Cheltenham to England’s Euro 2022 glory at Wembley and a peppering of Messi magic in Qatar, we’ve selected only the most prime cuts to this sporting smorgasbord.
Think tremendous team triumphs and the accomplishment of individual accolades to a myriad of memorable moments, 2022 was packed with sporting thrills, spills, shocks, and surprises that kept us on the edge of our seats!
So, with more headlines than a Cristiano Ronaldo interview, here’s our sporting year in review of the year just gone.
RUGBY
The year neither started nor ended particularly well for England’s rugby players! A loss to Scotland in the Calcutta Cup began an ill-fated year for Eddie Jones – bookended with a comprehensive loss to South Africa at the end of November, winning just 5 of 12 games in 2022 ultimately cost him his job.
Except for a battling performance against the All Blacks to salvage a 25-25 draw in the Autumn Series, a 2-1 series victory away in Australia in the summer was the only real bright spark for England. Red rose fans were however gifted some good news with the installation of new coaches Steve Borthwick and Kevin Sinfield just before Christmas. England’s women on the other hand dominated the 6 Nations, but sadly couldn’t win the Rugby World Cup after an agonising defeat to the Black Ferns in the final at Eden Park, Auckland.
France played some of the best rugby in the world in 2022 and claimed an emphatic 6 Nations Grand Slam. Heavily tipped to win a home Rugby World Cup in 2023 with star man Antoine Dupont marshalling ‘Les Bleus’, the Irish maybe their closest rivals. Having claimed a historic, first-ever series win away in New Zealand in the summer and defeated allcomers to the Aviva Stadium in November, the men from the ‘Emerald Isle’ are a team in the ascendence.
In other international news, Argentina had a stellar year – not only did ‘Los Pumas’ record an impressive away win at Twickenham, but they also defeated the All Blacks in New Zealand for the first time in their history.
Wales suffered the humiliation of losing to both Italy and Georgia, the latter being the nail in the coffin for Wayne Pivac’s tenure as Head Coach. The Italians proved to be a surprise package in 2022 having also defeated Australia in Florence in November.
FOOTBALL
2022 was punctuated with two huge international tournaments, the women’s Euro 2022 in England and the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Could England bring it home finally!? Well, England’s women certainly played their part, recording a historic defeat of Germany in the final at Wembley to win their first ever piece of international silverware.
Leah Williamson, Alessia Russo and Beth Mead became household names and the swell of momentum which increased as the tournament progressed was simply unforgettable! With the girls showing England’s Lions how it was done, could they bring home their first trophy since 1966?
It was all looking rosy for Gareth Southgate’s men, that was until a quarter-final rendezvous with the world champion French. As Harry Kane’s missed penalty exited the stratosphere, so did England’s chances of World Cup glory. Despite being the better team on the night, they were out of another major tournament.
On the domestic front, Manchester City continued their Premier League romp, winning their third Premier League title in four years whilst Liverpool won the domestic cup double taking home the Carabao and FA trophies. On the European stage, ‘Kings of Europe’, Real Madrid defeated Liverpool in Paris to win a record 14th UEFA Champions League title.
The year ended on somewhat of a sombre note for football fans around the world as they mourned the loss of Pelé. A true sporting icon revered by many as ‘the greatest’ and the ‘King of Football’, he leaves a legacy that truly transcended the sport of football.
Cricket
What a year 2022 turned out to be for English cricket! After an inauspicious start which saw Ashes defeat in Australia, T20 and Test Series’ defeats away in the Caribbean and the resignation of Joe Root from the Test Match captaincy, it looked like 2022 would be a sticky wicket for England.
Come to the rescue Ben Stokes and Brendon ‘Baz’ McCullum – explosive, swashbuckling and even cavalier at times but Test cricket had the full makeover! We witnessed the advent of ‘Bazball’ – world record run chases and high individual scores against New Zealand and India followed in what was a brand of Test cricket never seen before.
Ultra-attacking with both bat and ball, creative and decisive in the field, after the so-called ‘reboot’ England lost only one Test Match to South Africa, recording a home Series win against the Proteas. The year ended for the Test Match team with a quite mesmerising 3-0 series whitewash away in Pakistan – just the (amber) nectar needed ahead of an Ashes dust-up with the Aussies in summer 2023.
In the short format of the game, it seemed as though England were worse prepared than a Pindi pitch but captain Buttler and co hit their straps at just the right time ahead of the T20 World Cup in Australia. Despite an inexplicable loss to Ireland in the group strages of the tournament, England’s big guns were warming up at just the right time. Hales, Buttler and Stokes all weighed in with big performances and with player of the tournament Sam Curran in the form of his life, England would comfortably defat Pakistan in the final with match-winning performances from Ben Stokes and Adil Rashid.
After claiming the T20 World Cup, England are the first team ever to have simultaneously held both the ODI and T20 world titles and with an ODI World Cup to look forward to in India in 2023, they will have their chance to regain that title. Should England regain The Ashes as well, they will underline their credentials as the most dominant cricketing nation in the world right now, so watch this space in 2023, a big year for England lies ahead.
Horse Racing
After her stunning win in The Grand National at Aintree in 2021, all eyes were on Rachael Blackmore as the National Hunt jump season reached it’s culmination at Cheltenham and Aintree. Two of racing’s most celebrated festivals anywhere in the world, the Gold Cup in March and The Grand National in April are the most coveted prizes in the sport of jump racing.
As the rolling Cotswold Hills that surround Cheltenham Racecourse came alive with the sound of pounding hooves and the cries of excited revellers, Blackmore was clearly in fine fettle again, completing a historic Cheltenham double. After winning the highly sought-after Champion Hurdle on Champions’ Day, the jockey from Tipperary ended the Cheltenham Festival becoming the first ever woman to lift the Gold Cup. In less than a year, Blackmore had won jump racing’s major honours and had smashed the glass ceiling for female jockeys everywhere. She could not however retain her Grand National crown which was won by a very deserving Sam Waley-Cohen.
As winter turned to spring, racing action moved onto the flats – even faster and more explosive than the jumps, could Frankie Dettori add to his impressive list of honours, and could Hollie Doyle emulate Rachael Blackmore? With two classics, The Oaks’ and The Derby on offer at Epsom in June, the racing world was on tenterhooks ahead of the festival.
Sadly it was not to be for Dettori or Doyle, but a modern racing legend once again came to the fore, with Ryan Moore blasting through the pack to win his fourth Oaks’ title. In The Derby the following day in only his second ride in the race, Richard Kingscote hurtled past the post to claim victory.
As attention turned from Epsom to Royal Ascot, it was once again Frankie Dettori that was back in the headlines. After an acrimonious split with legendary trainer John Gosden during the festival, Dettori could once again not produce his best and it was down to superstar Ryan Moore to clinch the Gold Cup for the third time.
Formula 1
Petrolheads worldwide could not wait for the season to get underway in Bahrain – new rules, new cars and fresh start after the calamity that ended in Max Verstappen’s first world title in 2021.
In the opening part of the season it looked like the masters of Maranello, Ferrari, had finally cracked the code and looked to have the speed to compete with both Red Bull and Mercedes. However, after multiple strategy errors, instances of driver failure and a dose of bad luck, the prancing horse looked more like a tired donkey, with Charles Leclerc blowing numerous opportunities.
Mercedes really struggled in 2022 with Lewis Hamilton not winning a single race and their only victory coming in Brazil for George Russell at the end of the season in November. With Mercedes in a malaise and Ferrari faltering, Red Bull burned the opposition into dust in 2022. The Austrian outfit won 17 of 22 races, with Max Verstappen claiming a second world championship after having won a record 15 Grand Prixes.
In other news, four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel retired from Formula 1, Daniel Ricciardo has re-joined Red-Bull as their back up driver and after much contract wrangling, the young prodigy Oscar Piastri will make his debut for McLaren. Can he be the one to challenge Verstappen in 2023? Can one of the Mercedes’ drivers in Hamilton or Russell mark a challenge or will the ‘flying Dutchman’ complete a hat-trick of world titles? With the action underway at the start of March, the 2023 F1 season should be a thriller!
Tennis
2022 was another brilliant year in the world of tennis which saw the emergence of new stars in the men’s game especially.
Despite Nadal and Djokovic claiming three of the four Grand Slams available (Nadal, Australian Open and French Open and Djokovic, Wimbledon), young stars like Jannik Sinner, Casper Ruud and Carlos Alcaraz make their mark. Ruud would make the finals at both Roland Garros and Flushing Meadows, in the latter he would be defeated by the teenager Alcaraz who claimed his first Grand Slam title and ended the year as the new World Number One.
However, with Nadal on 22 Grand Slams and Djokovic just behind with 21 Grand Slam wins, both have surpassed Federer on 20 and their battle for G.O.A.T supremacy will rage on in 2023. With Djokovic’s issues with the Australian border force now over after his deportation in 2022, the first Slam of the year in Melbourne will be a cracker!
On the women’s side of the game, Ashleigh Barty had been a dominant force, but after following up her 2021 Wimbledon win with a home victory at the Australian Open, Barty made a shock move and retired from tennis with immediate effect. Barty’s retirement only opened the door further for Iga Swiatek who ended 2022 as Poland’s first ever world number one, with more than double the ranking points of her nearest rival Ons Jabeur. Having claimed wins in both Paris and New York, Swiatek cemented her position as the dominant force in women’s tennis.
The young Kazakh player Elena Rybakina became the first person from that nation to win a Grand Slam after her stunning win at Wimbledon and one player who we’ll sadly no longer see gracing the grass of SW19 is Roger Federer. The Swiss maestro called time on his legendary career in September and will go down as one of the greatest players ever to step on a tennis court.
Golf
Normally associated with relative peace and tranquillity, the world of golf was turned upside down in 2022 with the advent of the Saudi backed LIV Golf Tour. Aligned in direct competition to the PGA and European Tour, LIV and CEO Greg ‘The Great White Shark’ Norman attracted some of the sports biggest names to leave the PGA and European Tours with the lure of vast amounts of money, more than had ever been seen in golf before.
Big name major winners such as Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson De Chambeau and Sergio Garcia all defected to this new tour and in perhaps the biggest coup for the breakaway tour, they were able to snare world number one and British Open winner Cameron Smith.
With the world of golf still very much in turmoil over LIV Golf, 2023 is set to be another very interesting year for the sport especially when LIV golfers are still able to play in the four major tournaments. What’s not yet clear is whether LIV golfers will be involved in the highly anticipated Ryder Cup, beginning in September 2023. With European and American fans alike waiting to hear which stars will be involved, don’t take your eyes off the greens in 2023.
Overshadowed by the exploits of LIV Golf, 2022 witnessed four different major winners in what was actually a magnificent season. Scottie Scheffler dominated proceedings at Augusta, winning The Master’s and his first Green Jacket, staunch PGA Tour supporter Justin Thomas won his second PGA Championship, and in what was a stunning display at Brookline, Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick emulated the great Jack Nicklaus to have won both the US Amateur and US Open on the same course.
In the final major of the year and with much controversy surrounding his supposed switch to LIV Golf, the man with one of sports most impressive mullets Cameron Smith stormed The Old Course at St.Andrews to win his first major championship. Smith would also become world number one in 2022 and his switch to the LIV Tour became their biggest coup to date.
With the Ryder Cup to come and the battle with LIV Golf still rather vociferous, 2023 will be an exciting year from tee to green.
Boxing
The action never stops in the boxing ring and with world titles contested across four primary organisations (WBO, WBC, WBA and IBF) and a litany of weight classes, multiple prize fights and championship bouts were to be fought over in 2022. With the British boxing scene healthier than it’s ever been, fight fans across the UK packed out arenas and stadiums from London to Glasgow.
It was however a bout at the iconic Madison Square Garden in New York which captured the attention of a global sporting audience. When Katie Taylor defeated Amanda Serrano on points after a thrilling fight, it was the first time a women’s boxing match had been the main fight at Madison Square Garden. In doing so, Taylor retained her undisputed status and continues to be one of the leading lights for female boxers around the globe.
It wasn’t just Irish lady Taylor that was pulling the punches for the girls – Brits Savannah Marshall and Natasha Jonas also had big years in 2022. Marshall was however narrowly defeated by the self-proclaimed G.W.O.A.T Claressa Shields in London but Jonas on the other hand had a stellar year. In February, the Liverpudlian picked up her first world title, the WBO junior middleweight. In September she defeated Patricia Berghult to win the WBC super-welterweight title and to cap of the year in style, she won the IBF light middleweight title! All the tender age of just 38 years old!
On the men’s side of the game, Tyson Fury continued his dominance beating Dillian Whyte at Wembley in April before supposedly retiring. Nobody believed The Gypsy King’s retirement and he was back in the ring in December to defeat Derek Chisora. A unification bout with Oleksandr Usyk lies ahead in 2022, the was after the Ukrainian defeated Anthony Joshua for a second time.
Sticking with the heavyweights, Englishman Joe Joyce has continued his rise up the ranks having defeated Joseph Parker and a world championship fight surely lies ahead for ‘The Juggernaut’ in 2023.
In other boxing news, phenomenon Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez lost for the first time since 2013 as suffered a shock defeat by Dmitry Bivol in his bid to win the WBA light heavyweight title and last but by no means least Naoya Inoue became the first undisputed bantamweight world champion since 1972 as he defeated Brit Paul Butler for the crown.
The Best of The Rest
Birmingham hosted a highly successful Commonwealth Games in which England ended second in the medal table behind Australia and world champions were crowned in snooker, darts, and rugby league.
‘The Rocket’ Ronnie O’Sullivan claimed his 7th world crown at The Crucible, Peter ‘Snakebite’ Wright threw some golden arrows at Alexandra Palace and Australia continued their rugby league dominance winning the world title for a staggering 12th time.
We also couldn’t take a look at the year just gone without mentioning our friends across the pond and some huge results in American sports in 2022. The Los Angeles Rams claimed their first NFL Super Bowl since moving back to LA, 21 years after their departure to St.Louis. The Houston Astros were back in the World Series for the fourth time in six years and managed to pick up Major League Baseball’s biggest prize for the second time in that period. Last but by no means least, the Colorado Avalanche won ice hockey’s NHL Stanley Cup for the first time since 2001.
After another brilliant sporting year in 2022, we can’t wait to see what lies ahead in 2023! What we can be sure of though is that top-level professional will continue to deliver the highs and lows and the moments of ecstasy and anguish that endear us all so much. All we can say is let the action unfold…
