The Sporting Almanac Podcast | Podcast Guru

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What makes sport so special? Why do people fall in love with it, live it, breathe it? What is it about these games that move us so deeply?

Behind every sport is a story, a story of where it came from, how it developed and who shaped it along the way. From the dreamers and the trailblazers to the scandals, tragedies and moments of pure joy, sport reflects everything it means to be human - our struggles, our triumphs, our need to belong.

At The Sporting Almanac Podcast, we follow the global sporting calendar - not just to preview the events, but to explore the history, culture and characters that made them what they are today.

Hosted by Jack, an engineer and grassroots football coach, and Ben, a lawyer with anti-doping experience, each episode dives into the stories behind the spectacle - the forgotten origins, biggest controversies and the moments that made the world stop and watch.

Because after all, sport is nothing without the history that makes it.

Recent Episodes

Our Ashes XI (The Ashes, Part 3)

DEC 4, 2025

Our Ashes XI (The Ashes, Part 3)

<p><strong>Episode 35: Our Ashes XI (The Ashes, Part 3) - Why We Love Cricket</strong></p><p>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.</p><p>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 debate needed.</p><p>Others, though, need a proper argument. Does Jimmy Anderson’s stellar Test career earn him a place when his Ashes record is so uneven, especially with Pat Cummins and Mitch Starc looming in the background? Can Joe Root realistically compete with Steve Waugh when the pairs Ashes numbers suggest the older man belongs on a higher shelf - and are those numbers even telling the full story?</p><p>We even make a brief detour to Headingley in 1981 to bridge eras, but make no mistake: while the legends of series past matter deeply, it’s the personalities, moments and memories we’ve lived through that made us fall in love with this wonderful game - and with the Ashes most of all.</p>

101 MIN

Beginnings, Bradman, Bodyline and Benaud (The Ashes, Part 2)

NOV 27, 2025

Beginnings, Bradman, Bodyline and Benaud (The Ashes, Part 2)

<p><strong>Episode 34: Beginnings, Bradman, Bodyline and Benaud (The Ashes, Part 2) - The Birth of a Rivalry.</strong></p><p><em>"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." - </em>Australia captain and broadcasting legend Richie Benaud.</p><p>England have lost the first test, but rather than slide into familiar darkness and misery Jack and Ben instead go back into the early history of the Ashes to rediscover what it is that makes this contest so special, what makes them keep coming back even when the outcome feels like an inevitability.</p><p>It's a dive into the contests origins, an obituary notice and a quest by Ivo Bligh to regain what was lost. Into WG Grace and Billy Midwinter, whose careers intersected as teammates and opponents and, on one memorable occasion, as kidnapper and kidnappee. Into the greatest man to ever wield the willow in Sir Don Bradman, and how Douglas Jardine hatched a dastardly plan to stop him, and nearly set Anglo-Australian relations back a generation or two in the process. And into a man whose voice and passion for the game made him as beloved in England as in Australia - Richie Benaud.</p><p>Because through good and bad, the Ashes remain memorable, occasionally maddening, frequently controversial and - when all is said and done - utterly marvellous.</p><p></p><p>Intro Music: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://Bensound.com/free-music-for-videos">Bensound.com</a></p><p>License code: MZ7BOE03DMJ0CYB5</p><p>Artist: Benjamin Tissot</p>

83 MIN

How to Cricket (The Ashes, Part 1)

NOV 20, 2025

How to Cricket (The Ashes, Part 1)

<p><strong>Episode 33: The Ashes Part 1, How to Cricket - A Beginners Guide to a Very Old Sport</strong></p><p><em>“They'd win the first four Tests and we'd try to nick one at the end when they were all drunk.”</em> - Former England captain Nasser Hussain on England's pre-2005 Ashes fortunes.</p><p>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 puzzle, to bemuse and to surprise in equal measure.</p><p>Ahead of the 2025-26 Ashes series starting in Perth on Friday morning we attempt to do the impossible - make the most jargon filled, tradition soaked, wonderfully weird sport on Earth make sense to newcomers.</p><p>In the first part of an Ashes trio, we take you through the absolute basics - what cricket is, how the Ashes works, what legendary stadiums are hosting this year's series, how a Test match unfolds, what all those strange words actually mean, and why the sport has such a grip on the imagination of millions.</p><p>From silly fielding positions to mandatory tea breaks, the importance of weather forecasts to what LBW actually is, we set the scene for cricket fans old and new ahead of Australia and England once more going to cricketing war, reigniting the oldest international sports rivalry of them all.</p>

82 MIN

NOV 13, 2025

<p><strong>Episode 32: The Grey Cup - Canadian Football's Grand Finale</strong></p><p>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 the less said about the rouge the better...</p><p>But to Canadians - and, honestly, to the occasional impartial observer - it is an arguably even more exciting spectacle whose rules encourage faster play, more passing and kick returning, more unpredictability and some of the wildest finishes to games in all of sport. And it's all built upon a long history and over a century of its biggest spectacle - the Grey Cup.</p><p>Ahead of the Montreal Alouettes versus the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Winnipeg on Sunday, Ben and Jack talk the origins of the game and the Cup, about legends like Russ Jackson and Warren Moon, and of how Canadian footballers changed the direction of the American game forever - and why the sports world should never stop thanking them for that.</p>

82 MIN

The Brazilian Grand Prix

NOV 6, 2025

The Brazilian Grand Prix

<p><strong>Episode 31: The Brazilian Grand Prix - Drama is Only Seconds Away</strong></p><p><em>"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."</em> - Ayrton Senna, speaking about his 1991 Brazilian Grand Prix win.</p><p>There is no race on the Formula 1 calendar that disappoints as rarely as Brazil. The Interlagos circuit has played host to some of the most astonishing moments in the sports history - chaos in 2003, Hamilton’s charge in 2021, a three way title showdown in 2007, and of course, Ayrton Senna finally winning his home Grand Prix stuck in sixth gear in 1991.</p><p>Surely though, its most extraordinary moment came in November 2008, the final race of a controversy filled season, where Felipe Massa drove a perfect 71 laps only to be pipped to the title by Lewis Hamilton after he had crossed the line to win.</p><p>It's a season whose legacy endures - as Massa now tries to undo what he perceives as the injustice of Crashgate, we discuss this race, the merits of his claims and why they are most likely doomed to failure, alongside many other stories from this legendary race and the history of motorsport in Brazil.</p><p><em>> Content note: This episode contains brief factual references to fatal motorsport accidents.</em></p>

93 MIN