The festive season always creates a natural time to reflect on what has happened in the year just gone and of course set some new goals and targets for 2025.
A highlight of 2024 was doing my first live Premier League commentary, covering Ipswich against Manchester United, as part of a new contract with Flash Score. I ended the year with a further five Premier League commentaries under my belt, and looking forward to more.
A goal is definitely to look after myself better to give myself more energy, so turning to supplements wholesale for vitamins, strength and memory focus is going to be a priority for January, as well as getting back on the bike.
Those who follow me on Twitter will have seen my usual reflective piece on games I’ve been to this year – I managed to hit the century mark again, which is always my base target. Aside from the two COVID years of 2020 and 2021, I have managed more than 100 games each year since 2016.
It’s predominantly football and rugby league these days, with 90 live commentaries within them. I do need to get back out to basketball and ice hockey a bit more in 2025.
I only made it to three new grounds this year too – a consequence of Warrington Town being in the same league and of course me already having done all the rugby league grounds many times.
Business wise, it was a steady if unspectacular year. We maintained our existing retainer base of clients and brought in a couple of new ones.
I still struggle with the battle between being a freelancer and an agency, and that’s certainly pa
Away from the office, the JDG FC football team had a few outings – featuring at the Home Financial tournament at Runcorn Linnets in the summer, and even trying our hand at rugby in the Warrington Wolves corporate touch rugby tournament at the Halliwell Jones Stadium. We frustratingly had to withdraw from our regular 7-a-side league late in the year – Powerplay was taken over by Powerleague and the organisation afterwards was exceedingly poor, with us regularly turning up to no game. It’s hard enough to get men in their 20s/30s committed to regular activity, so even more frustrating when it’s administration that gets in the way.
Unfortunately, this year was probably the first I’ve been struck down by an injury niggle serious enough to put me on the sidelines. I’ve been struggling to shake off an Achilles tendon injury for two thirds of the year that has basically sidelined me from playing football or partaking in Park Run.
The consequence of that is feeling very unfit, putting on weight and of course no good for your mental health. I need to try and get back on the recovery trail in 2025, with the aid of some supplements to help me push back to fitness.
Another achievement of 2024 was getting the Widnes Rugby Chat podcast back going again. It ran relatively successfully from 2018 up until covid and then it was shelved, but it has been good to bring it back, and it’s coincided with Widnes picking up on the field and reaching the play-offs for the first time.
The podcast was also shortlisted for the Best Team Podcast at the Sports Podcast Awards, and you can still vote for it to win.
So with a New Year comes plenty of new possibilities – all the best!
