Nick Westby: This most uplifting of summers leaves 2013 in no-win situation

What can possibly happen next year that we haven’t already lived through in the last five or six months?

A first British Tour de France winner in history? No, sorry, done that.

How about breaking that three-quarters-of-a-century wait for a British male grand slam tennis winner? Yeah, done that as well.

Well, ok then, a long-awaited men’s champion at Wimbledon? Step forward Sheffield’s Jonny Marray in the men’s doubles.

A first British winner of golf’s US PGA Championship nearly a century? Done.

The greatest comeback in Ryder Cup history? As if we needed reminding of the heroics of Ollie’s boys.

Fulfilment of Roman Abramovich’s European Champions League quest, and in a hostile environment to boot? Tick, with a tacit nod to Munich in May and Drogba’s penalty.

The blossoming of one of the greatest racehorses of all time? Thank you Frankel.

And we’ve not even got to the Olympic and Paralympic Games yet, that magical month and a half in the capital when sport and human endeavour lit up the world.

As sports fans we should remember this epic summer for as long as we can. We are never going to see another like it. We should celebrate this year in isolation, not measure future accomplishments against this most uplifting of summers, when Yorkshire athletes, British teams and individual superstars, along with Europe’s golfers found something deep within to deliver their greatest performance on the grandest of stages.

Since we’ll be retelling tales of these heady days for years to come, why not take the first steps down memory lane – even if there is a chance it might get even better with a potential Formula 1 world title for Lewis Hamilton.

It all began on that crazy night in Munich on May 19, when Chelsea – having already defended their way to the Champions League final via Naples, Lisbon and Barcelona – upset the hot favourites in their own backyard.

Thomas Muller thought he had won it for Bayern with a downward 83rd-minute but up stepped Didier, so often the saviour of Chelsea, with the most powerful of glancing headers to shatter Munich hearts and set up one of the most improbable Champions League triumphs of recent years.

The crowning of the Premier League champions may not have seen Britain conquering the world but for sheer drama, the two stoppage-time goals Manchester City scored to pip city rivals United to the title takes some beating.

On to early July, and on top of Andy Murray’s gallant run to a first Wimbledon final, there was also a storyline so surprising not even Jonny Marray, the 31-year-old Sheffield journeyman who won Wimbledon’s men’s doubles title, could quite comprehend the magnitude of his accomplishment.

Throughout July, Bradley Wiggins, in a blur of sideburns, foul language and spinning spokes, rewrote the history books with an accomplished ride in the Tour de France, becoming Britain’s first winner of the famous race in its 109-year history.

He made it look so easy it was a wonder it had taken so long.

Then from July 27 onwards the world stood still as the 30th Summer Olympiad unfolded in London.

Wiggins again, Murray once more, Jess Ennis, Mo Farah, Greg Rutherford, the Brownlee brothers, Nicola Adams, Laura Trott, Victoria Pendleton, Sir Chris Hoy and a host of Britons etched their names onto the nation’s psyche with gold-medal winning performances.

After a brief pause for breath on the conclusion of the Olympics, the Paralympians came to town, inspiring us with their sporting deeds while educating us as to what disabled people can do, not what they can’t do.

Across the Atlantic, Rory McIlroy became the first Briton since Jim Barnes in 1919 to win the US PGA Championship. Because no-one is surprised at the feats of McIlroy anymore, and because it coincided with the final throes of the Olympic Games, his victory went under the radar a little.

But that should not diminish the achievement.

Arguably the greatest individual accomplishment, even in this most honour-laden of summers for Britons, was completed by Murray when he defeated Novak Djokovic in the US Open final at Flushing Meadows in September.

I put that victory above Wiggins’s Tour win, because Murray had been so close to ending sport’s most infuriating stat (no male grand slam champion for God know’s how many years) so many times before, was up against the best player on the planet from the last two years, and had to show the mental strength to close out the match having lost the previous two sets. It was a truly heroic performance.

The challengers Wiggins defeated among the Tour de France peloton were hardly vintage.

And then there was that emotional, dramatic, rollercoaster of a Sunday when the 12 best golfers in Europe came storming back from the tightest of spots to win the Ryder Cup in America’s raucous back yard.

That final Sunday at Medinah just summed up the winning mentality of the summer.

There were the disappointments of course, we wouldn’t be British if it was all plain sailing. The England cricket team lost their ranking at the top of the world and England’s football team muddled their way to another penalty shootout defeat.

At the time, the run by Roy Hodgson’s Three Lions at Euro 2012 was seen as a doughty effort, but with what has gone since, it is now reflected upon as another missed opportunity by sport’s overpaid under-achievers.

There will be moments to inspire us, and savour, in 2013 and beyond. But a summer as memorable as this one? Forget about it.