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Hold the Back Page annual awards

From the sublime to the downright ridiculous, Mary Hannigan shines a light on some of the year’s most bizarre but strangely captivating moments

Katie Walsh celebrates with her father Ted after winning the Irish Grand National on Thunder and Roses at Fairyhouse, yesterday. Photograph: Cyril Byrne / The Irish Times

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Mary Hannigan
Wed Dec 30 2015 - 07:13

Joyous jockeys

Photo-wise, it's a dead heat between the images captured of Katie Walsh and Michelle Payne after their very memorable 2015 moments. Payne became the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup in its 155-year history on the 100-1 Prince of Penzance, the Herald Sun's Colleen Petch snapping her, rather beautifully, having a quiet moment with her prize in the jockeys' room after.

And Walsh became only the third woman, after Ann Ferris in 1984 and Nina Carberry in 2011, to win the Irish Grand National, riding the Sandra Hughes-trained Thunder And Roses to victory at Fairyhouse. And when she met up with her Da after her triumph, as photographed by The Irish Times' Cyril Byrne, most of us had something in our eye.

“And she’s not two hands higher than a duck,” said Ted of his daughter. Tribute of the year? Possibly.

Perilous promises

"If Northern Ireland qualify for Euro 2016 I'll run thru Belfast city centre in a green mankini. Without any shame whatsoever. #Euro2016Draw." – As tweeted by TalkSPORT presenter Colin Murray in February 2014 when the draw for the Euro 2016 qualifying groups was made. What's he doing on Stephen's Day? He ran around Belfast city centre in, yes, a green mankini. Thankfully he wasn't arrested.

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"If he beats Aldo, I'll cut my own d**k off and throw it away." – UFC fighter Joe "Diesel" Riggs not fancying Conor McGregor's chances a great deal in that tussle with José Aldo. Now? Riggs speaks very highly of McGregor.

"Alastair Cook thinks his current KP-less [Kevin Pietersen] England team will regain the Ashes this summer. In other news, I will be elected Pope in August." – Piers Morgan previewing the series which England . . . won. He's not infallible, then.

"If Jo Inge Berget scores against us tonight I'll get his name tattooed on my arse, the guy's awful." – Celtic fan Aidan O'Brien ahead of the club's Champions League play-off against Malmo. Berget, who had a less than successful spell with Celtic, didn't score once. Phew. Wait. He scored twice.

Most accurately named golfer of year

Back in July, Helsingor in Denmark hosted 21 nations in the European Amateur Women’s Team Golf Championships. Alas, Luxembourg finished last in the 36-hole strokeplay qualifying phase, 161 shots behind leading qualifiers England, and 92 behind the 20th placed team Slovakia, averaging 87.1 shots per player per round. And that was even after discarding their worst score. That unfortunate player had rounds of 99 and a 103. Her name? Anne-Marie Putz.

Water into wine? No can do

"I'm not bleedin' Dumbledore, I can't wave a magic wand and produce a footballer out of nothing!" – Wicklow manager Johnny Magee making a perfectly reasonable point after the county's National League struggles (they finished second from bottom of division four).

Fightin’ talk

Opinions on the merits or otherwise of that UFC business continue to be divided, some, for example, regarding Conor McGregor as the second coming, others dismissing the “sport”’ as no more than a rowdy street brawl.

Like Ross O’Carroll-Kelly: “Those fights shouldn’t be on Pay Per View, they should be on CCTV.”

(Brave man).