2011 — The year of the bandwagon
That much-loved New Year’s Eve scene in which a scruffy Billy Crystal turns up at a swish Manhattan ballroom in the moments before midnight to profess, as the cliché rings, his undying love for Meg Ryan?
Well, you can guess the rest — she rejects him initially, putting the grand gesture down to December 31-induced loneliness, before he suddenly launches into a speech on the Sean Óg/Paulie side of inspirational.
She melts into his arms, they promise to spend their lives together before he quickly reverts to type and asks, as the band strike up, what Auld Lang Syne is all about. “All my life I don’t understand what this song means?” he shrugs.
Sally, having the last word for once, says simply — it’s about remembering old friends.
Those in my life often say that I live mine from sport event to sport event. Marking chapters in life’s big book — like births, marriages and deaths — thanks to the dog-ears of goals, games and tournaments. But the end of the calendar in which the rest of world turns, offers a natural time to reflect on another seaso... year.
It’s a time to remember old friends. And, from Katie to Rory, we’ve enjoyed their company this year.
I used to joke that the deputy sports editor was half man/half desk as I flung my flak jacket over my shoulder, bit on a cigar and strode towards the office door and another jaunt ‘in the field’.
Now too, dear reader, my legs are Ikea flat packs. So, this annual look back on places visited is populated more with a convenient parking space I found in April and a nice coffee shop around the corner rather than world championships or All-Ireland finals.
One memorable outing however was the night Ireland booked qualification for a major tournament on home soil for the first time.
With hundreds of bespoke paper airplanes floating gracefully towards the turf from high in the stands, the stadium rocking as one to a familiar refrain from past battlefields, and the players whom we know so well dancing around the hem of the pitch — it was not unlike a Fifth Avenue tickertape parade.
Watching it unfold from behind a warm laptop on a cold night was a joy you’re not supposed in articulate in the press box.
Every year the Oxford English Dictionary compiles a list of words and terms that have elbowed their way into common usage. Terms like ‘social media’, ‘cougar’ and ‘bromance’ made this year’s edition. If there was an Irish version, ‘the cat is in the sack’ would surely top it.
Beforehand the avuncular Giovanni Trapattoni warned that despite the 4-0 first leg win in Estonia, the feline was not, in fact, in the aforementioned bag. After the result in Dublin, under a sky full of paper airplanes, it really was. It makes next year one to look forward to.
Then Footballer of the Year, Bernard Brogan, told me early in the year to put a fiver on the Dubs to take Sam. But he would say that, wouldn’t he, I thought.
As Stephen Cluxton kicked the winner against Kerry some months later, I wished I had listened. On the other side of the street, Tipperary and Kilkenny played out another memorable final. I had no dog in that fight either but to quote many a colleague on the sportsdesk... it was a great day for the Association.
Amongst many beaten dockets however, Rory McIlroy’s 18-1 victory at the US Open, put an extra packet of biscuits or two in the shopping trolley. His win, Darren Clarke’s Indian summer victory at the British Open and Graeme McDowell’s previous Major title in the States saw the Golf Union of Ireland corner the market in the global game.
I interviewed an inspirational/crazy guy who never played a round in his life before he jacked in his job to take up the game full-time and try to make it as a professional. I plan to pull on a pair of spikes next year too — watch out Tiger.
It was a year in which I ran, half-embarrassed, at a departing bandwagon, caught it and dragged myself on board — only to ask, so how does cricket actually work?
Many of us, watched our first match — is match the right word? — as Ireland shocked England at the World Cup back in March. It was great. Howzat, indeed.
So soon the page turns anew and, as Sam Torrence often said in the Ryder Cup team room — from the shadows will come heroes.
It’s almost time to make some new friends.
