While most papers the length and breadth of the land around this time of year are busy telling you stuff you already know – i.e. who scored what in March or who won over fences in August, ‘From Pitch to Print’ is an attempt at something different.

Annual sport reviews are, generally, handy copy bulkers for newspapers at a time of year when there’s generally not a hell of a lot going on news wise. But they ought to be more than that.

They should, at least in my view, recall the past year’s events in a way that the constraints of the weekly job render impossible.

In a newspaper which has always prided itself on providing a playing pitch for all, ‘From Pitch to Print’ proudly takes its place in a great Waterford title soon to celebrate its 150th birthday.

Last year’s ‘Tales From the Press Box’ was a well received special, focusing on the experiences and observations of some of the country’s leading sportswriters.

This time around, ‘From Pitch to Print’ acts as something of a companion piece to the themes addressed in last year’s supplement – but in a slightly different way.

This ‘another year over, a new one’s just begun’ gig focuses on my experiences and observations on the major local and national sporting events of 2007.

It’s drawn from the sports that have provided the main focus of my work during the year, which means some codes receive a comprehensive airing while others none at all. To those not included, my apologies, but there’s only so many ways a scribbler can turn.

Nonetheless, most of the big events of the Waterford and Irish sporting year are recalled here and I hope you’ll enjoy reading about these events as much as I enjoyed writing about them.

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