2023 January-June Summary (Catch-Up)

A busy 2023 both Home and Away meant blogging has been on hold for most of the year with plans to finally reboot to make sure 2024 begin as up to date as is possible. As the tag for this year was the split between Home and Away it seems fitting to title the sections as such in this opening summary of 2023.

Home

The Countdown Weights reached their third anniversary of existence back in April with the pursuit of 1.5 Million lifts well underway. A number of milestones in the first four months of the year included regularly hitting weekly totals of 11,000, round totals of above 150 and daily records going above 2200.  At the halfway point of 2023, the status was 156 in terms of round total, 11,400 as a weekly high and also an overall of around 1.4 Million. 

Work continued with the future transition from the last post taking place in February which saw a move from using a laptop to a desktop and a mini office space created at home. The online friendships with my closest friends both here and overseas had both growth and weakness alike the last post with some connections loosening before gaining new strength and other sadly ending altogether. 

As the new season of attendances began in February, Gaming increased with all but March and May above 150 unlocks with the best month being the haul of 253 unlocks in January.

Rugby League (Wigan)

After a record 90 attendances in 2022, the first half of 2023 saw a whopping 78 attendances across many levels and also meant it was a case of when rather than if the 2022 record would be toppled.

The season began with a unique RPA/DW double against Salford with the Academy storming to an 84-0 win before the seniors had success in Sam Powell's Testimonial. Back-to-back losses saw the Academy defeated by Oldham with SL's opener at Hull KR being a hard loss to take given the journey.  Wins over Wakefield, Castleford for the men and first visit to Salford Roosters to see the Wigan Women overcome Salford saw February end well and March begin positively which included the start of the Women's squad pic goal to have all 30 or so players in a selfie across the season. 

Losses to Catalans and St Helens/Warrington Scholarships tri-sandwiched a haul of seven wins which included the highest score of the season in a 102-0 hammering of Newcastle Thunder Academy at RPA as well as success over Huddersfield and Salford. Four new venues saw victories with Halifax Wheelchair (RP Leisure Centre), Leigh Leopards Women (Twist Lane), Bradford Wheelchair (Preston College) and Barrow Ladies (Matt Johnson Prestige Stadium). 

A Warrington Weekender saw the Men and Reserves secure wins while the Women salvaged a 22-22 draw at Victoria Park in the WSL opener before double success against Wakefield for the Men and Academy the following week. Another new venue at the end of April saw a trip to Rochdale Leisure Centre to see the Wheelchair Reserves over come Rochdale Wheelchair. This came a day after an England/France double in Warrington where I reunited with Lauréane Biville completing the selfie set with her playing for France and hinting of a Wigan return in Summer.

Mixed results followed with a win over Huddersfield Scholarship, SL losses to Hull and Leeds and draw with Leeds Reserves as the game was abandoned at 22-22 due to a Leeds player suffering a serious injury. The biggest winning streak so far saw eight victories and began with a perfect Women's Nines Group stage for Wigan as they eased past Castleford, London and Leigh on a day which saw four groups viewed and a first ever meeting and selfie with WN organiser and England captain Jodie Cunningham at Victoria Park. 

Success followed against Warrington Women's Academy with a 72-0 hammering at WSJ before both the Men and Women sealed passage in the Challenge Cup with wins over Salford Women and Leeds. Redemption in SL with joy away at Hull KR and then Leeds Development Wheelchair in a RPLC festival double which saw the streak end with defeat to Leeds Wheelchair. 

Victory away at Huddersfield Women opened June before a humbling by Catalans at Magic Weekend in Newcastle was followed by a St Helens trilogy with victories for the Women's Academy and Reserves sandwiching an SL defeat at the TW Stadium. A Challenge Cup double between RPA/DW saw success over Huddersfield Women and Warrington which led to another double being created for July in Leeds. 

The Women came achingly close to a first trophy success of the year as they lost out in the Women's Nines final to Leeds having drawn with them in the group and stunning York Valkyrie and defeating Warrington. The first half of the year drew to a close with double successes over Salford (Men/Reserves) and Huddersfield (Academy/Men) bookending a scholarship victory against Hull FC. 

Goals 

In terms of goals, a huge haul of 28 were completed between January and June across many levels as follows. 

• 21 Jan- 850,000 TA on Xbox One, 27 Jan - 60% Completion on TA.
• 3- Feb -150,000 TA on Windows. 10 Feb- 550,00G on Xbox One , 24 Feb - 3000 miles on Nike +
• 15 Mar- 1.5 Million Countdown lifts, 17 Mar- 500 Wigan attendances as ST holder, 26 Mar- 3 new venues. 27 Mar- 50 attendances in 2023.
• 1 Apr- First Wigan Wheelchair Reserves attendance, 2 Apr- 5 new venues/ 150 away attendances/75th away win, 5 Apr- First Scholarship away attendance, 8 Apr- 250 attendances between RPA/DW Stadium. 28 Apr- 3 years of Countdown lifts.
• 5 May - 500 RL Men's attendances, 14 May- 75 Women's attendances, 21 May - 600 RL attendances/ 350 RL wins, 22 May- 800 Countdown lift days, 25 May 300 SL (Non Wigan) attendances/350 SL attendances inc Wigan.
• 7 Jun- 250 home wins, 11 June- 25th Women's Super League, 14 Jun- 1,250,000 TA, 18 Jun- 50 Miles walked in 2023, 28 Jun- 25 Scholarship attendances, 30 Jun- 80 Men's Academy attendances.

Visual Highlights between Jan and June are also below...

2022 July-December Summary (Catch-Up)

A positive first half of 2022 on many fronts as seen in the previous post but such is life, what is good doesn't always last, However, there are also instances where goodness can come by surprise with a few appearing in this July- December summary. 

Rugby League (Wigan)

A mixed start to the second half of the year with the Women losing at home to Leeds where I prioritised them over the Men's loop game at Wakefield and then the long awaited return to Magic Weekend (Newcastle) being an agonising derby defeat to St Helens. July ended with another first for 2022 with a Men/Women Double Header as Wigan visited Leeds, sadly two losses but that night began a new connection that would flourish across the remainder of the season. 

The signing of French international Lauréane Biville saw a 'good luck on your debut post' lead to interviewing her with squad housemate and my favourite player Anna Davies at the home win over Huddersfield in August. This duo piece went on the Wigan website and with the surprise images from John Baldwin made for a truly memorable experience. Another great experience which this time didn't include Wigan was seeing every game of the Women's Nines Finals day with the winners being York City Knights Ladies.

August ended with a Derby Quartet with two wins and two losses on the space of a week or so against St Helens. The domestic season ended with just one success trophy wise with the Reserves Grand Final win over Wakefield closing the campaign bit on the Women's front, a hard fought loss in the Semi Final to York which saw Lauréane Biville cross for our only try and my celebration was caught on the TV coverage. 

The year ended on a record high of 90 RL attendances with the England double at the DW which saw Georgia Wilson score a try and Vicky Molyneux win Player of the Match which was great to see first hand having wished both good luck in the World Cup at the WSL Semi Final and despite her French side coming away without success, it was lovely to be able to also interact and support Lauréane from afar and news at the turn of the year is that she will reunite with Wigan this year (2023) so hopes are on the up for a good 2023 in RL attendances.

Leisure

The Countdown Weights of the second half of the year saw the huge milestone of 1,000,000 lifts reached in September and a first ever 500,000 lifts in a single year. The daily and weekly records saw 2100 hit in a day and 10,000 and then 10,500 in a single week. Meaning the hopes for early 2023 of 2200 and 11,000 in daily and weekly totals. 

Work continued nicely despite numerous team movements due to some restructuring but as the year came to a close, news of a future transition arrived but it would be the not a job change but a contract change which will happen in February. 

The online friendships with my closest friends both here and overseas had both growth and weakness with some connections loosening before gaining new strength,  The romantic connection did come to an end though as long distance meant a very tough period with no contact from overseas led to my ending of the connection rather than wait to be let go as i always have been.

As the attending eased later in the year and work remained consistent, Gaming increased with all but July above 150 unlocks and the final three all above 200 meaning that despite being a long way off the all-time record total from 2021, this year passed 2000 to become the third year to do so. 

In terms of overall goals for the year

Visual Highlights between July and December are also below...

2022 Jan-June Summary (Catch-Up)

After a huge delay with the 2021 summaries, 2022 will be summarised in two posts spanning Jan-June and July-December in order to finally catch up to the present time of writing here in 2023 where the blog becomes  HomeWork & AwayPlay in 2023.

Rugby League (Wigan)

A great start to the year began with a first away trip since July 2021, ironically alike then it was to see the Warriors face Warrington and this time around it was a successful trip, The success continued into what became my longest winning streak and unbeaten run of 17 games before a first defeat of the season against St Helens on Good Friday. The streak featured some new horizons in the Women's attendances with first ever trips to see Salford Women and Bradford Women and also a first clash against Dewsbury Moor Women. 

However, there was a surprise switch in focus after the Easter loss as I took the steps to become a Media Volunteer for Wigan and it meant actually doing match reports and updates with the first covering the Women's Nines Festival at Warrington's Victoria Park. Finally after many near-misses, I graced the infamous venue and although Wigan lost out to Catalans Deésses in their group (wins came against Hull FC/Wakefield), interacting with the Wigan Women's squad was a superb experience. 

That experience extended into a first ever trip to see the Women play Huddersfield in early June which included interviewing Becky G and Beth H and despite the content not being used by the club due the focus on the Men's news that week, the interview took the negatives of my PMRs into a new positive.

Another unique double was seeing both the Men's and Women's Challenge Cup finals in May, the first was at Elland Road as St Helens Women defeated Leeds Women ahead of another  memorable experience against Huddersfield with victory at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in May's Challenge Cup Final following Wigan.

The strangest game was my first covering the reserves as the Warriors eased to a 100-0 win over Castleford which made the report easy to write but led to some happy chaos in rapid updating and across the first half of the year, having the 17 game streak and then an eight game streak made for a hopes of an equally great second half of 2022. 

Leisure

After the lockdown of 2020/21 saw Leisure limited to being at home, this continued around the aforementioned attending with the Countdown Weights surpassing the second anniversary on April 28th. The first half of the year saw almost 250,000 lifts bringing the overall total to around 850,000 meaning the Million would hopefully happen in 2022. Various records graced the whiteboard including the first ever day of 2000 lifts and also 500 days of the CW as an idea itself. 

A nice transition around April saw work become more secure in the move from an agency agent to a permanent agent which came days after the Rugby Derby defeat in happening on Easter Monday. 

The online friendships with my closest friends both here and overseas grew stronger and led to new friends across the pond so to speak. However, the most significant connection change came as a friend who sadly disappeared last year, reunited in May and that began us forging an online relationship which added to the joy of the aforementioned Huddersfield Women trip in June as the 'Yes' came while standing soaked on the touchline.

As both the attending and work situations increased into 2022, this meant Gaming became less of a focus and any hopes of matching or even topping the epic 2021 was going to be tough. This was clear in the fact only three of the six months from Jan-June included more than 150 unlocks and just ONE over 200 as shown in the monthly totals below. 

Visual Highlights between Jan and June are also below...

2021 Winter Summary (Nov /Dec) (Catch Up)

The final months of 2021 saw the Autumn/Winter Life/Gaming balance continue and after 2020, this year (2021) was always going to be a mixed one as the Pandemic continued alongside the slight return of some sort of normality in life as has been shown in the previous monthly summaries.

Life

The Countdown Weights saw 124/125/126/127/128 completed and new weekly milestones of 9272, 9343 & 9391. There were many daily highs of 1873, 1878, 1890, 1892, 1893,1899, 1902, 1907, 1915, 1916 & 1917 which meant the hope of reaching 2000 in a day would become possible in 2022. 

A milestone of hitting  400,000 for the year and a new best month of 40,184 in November followed by a new high of 42,576 in December to end the year with joy. 

November saw the celebration of my new best friend's birthday where she loved the gift we decided on and being online only friends, the process was done with discussions. The work side of life continued with some mixed quality checks but the long term goal of being fully employed across two years came true as I ended December and would began January still in the same job.

After beginning the year having lost an online close friend who stopped replying on Dec 31st 2020. it was nice to end this year not only with an amazing best friend who has been the most supportive and caring woman in my life since April but a few new close friends who ensure a good end to the year in an emotional sense. 

Gaming

The gaming boost saw a slight drop with a haul of 145 unlocks and a good ratio of 5 completions from 9 games played. A good end to the year saw a huge haul of 227 unlocks which completed a truly historic gaming year. The ratio for the month is a strange one with 8 completions from 34 games played but not in a bad way as many games were used specifically for the True Achievements 20/20 & Christmas challenges. 

A few homebased highlights from the months...

2021 Autumn Summary (Sept/Oct) (Catch-Up)

September saw two huge life changes in terms of a starting and ending career wise and that transition saw October become attendance less for the first year in a long time. 

Sport

A mixed start to the month football wise with a 2-0 loss in the FA Cup away to Radcliffe before a 3-1 win away at Northwich Victoria in an evening game. The next game saw the biggest win in my 4 1/2 years involved with the club as visiting FA Vase opponents Retford suffered a 9-1 humiliation but the immense joy was soon soured by an insult from the chairman post-match with the gist being that he felt I hadn't ever 'contributed' to the club. 

An insult so powerful would usually have led to rage but after actually contributing for 4 1/2 years, my final contribution was resigning on the spot and severing all ties with such a toxic club and staff. As someone who played a significant part in the saving and promotion of the club across the years, I knew my luck would be that they would prosper while I move on.

Attendances in RL came to an end with premature endings for the Men and Women with the Academy simply ending their season on time. A 20-6 home loss to York City Ladies was made worse by the Magic Weekend virtual loss of 10-6 against Warrington Wolves. Next up, a virtual 10-0 win away at Hull FC was followed by a winning double of Catalans Dragons (12-8) and Hull KR Academy (38-12) both at home. 

Women's attending ended for the year with a 52-0 loss away at St Helens Women before the Men's first team also saw an early end to the season with an 8-0 home loss to Leeds Rhinos in the Play-Off Eliminator. The final sports attendance of the year saw success with a 40-18 win over Bradford Bulls Academy. 

Life

The Countdown Weights saw 122/123 completed and 124 in the early stages to end the month of September. Records wise, a new weekly high of 8916 was coupled with the daily high of 1845 and a new best monthly total of 39.074. October saw 123/124 completed and 125 in the early stages to end the month. Records wise, a new weekly milestone of 9000 was followed by a further high of 9152 was coupled with the daily highs of 1857, 1860, 1862 and 1865.

A nice mix of friend connections continued to grow with my new best friend becoming my biggest supporter and a number of friend birthdays either taking place or in the planning for November. The long term connections continued with one of the recent additions to my close friend group becoming someone I consider to my best friend as our connection has become very strong.

The biggest news in this section from last month extended with the new job officially starting and developing new work friendships too. The work side of life saw some early worries ease with several perfect quality checks and growing connections both in and out of work.

Gaming

The gaming boost continued with a lower than usual total of 131 unlocks and a mixed ratio of 7 completions from 15 games played. October saw a rise with a double century haul of 200 unlocks with a good ratio of 11 completions from 15 games played.

A mix of home and being out and about, highlights below are boosted by some adventures.