The Sporting Year: Mary Hannigan marks your card for the greatest coming attractions
JANUARY: It's a barren month in terms of major international sporting events of any significance. That's if you don't count the Super Bowl in San Diego, which - let's be blunt - most well adjusted folk don't. There's an outside chance that Mick McCarthy's successor as Republic of Ireland manager will be appointed. Our tip? We dreamt t'other night that Roy Keane and Jason McAteer submitted a joint application for the post. Then we woke up. Screaming. Neither will be runners at the big Leopardstown meeting on the 26th.
FEBRUARY: The Six Nations gets under way, with Ireland opening its campaign against Scotland at Murrayfield, followed by their trip to Italy a week later. The cricket World Cup, meanwhile, starts up in South Africa and Zimbabwe, where it is anticipated that Robert Mugabe will confiscate bats, balls and pads from any white players who dare to show up. The highlight, though, should be that historic floodlit National League football match between Cork and Kerry at Páirc Uí Rinn. Peter Reid/Frank Stapleton/Kenny Dalglish/Bryan Robson/Brian Kerr/Joe Kinnear/A N Other will manage Ireland for the first time in their friendly (but not too friendly, after the Euro 2008 bidding fiasco) against Scotland at Hampden Park. What else? Oh yeah - that boatie thing, the America's Cup, sets sail in Auckland.
MARCH: The Formula One season starts in Melbourne. It ends in Japan in October and, short of him being banned from driving for accruing too many penalty points for speeding, Michael Schumacher will triumph. Again. Ireland play France (home) and Wales (away) in the Six Nations, before wrapping up their campaign in a subdued manner . . . against England. At. Lansdowne. Road. Many an Irish home will be re-re-mortgaged after Cheltenham before Ireland travel to Georgia to resume their (so far) unsuccessful Euro 2004 qualifying campaign. In athletics, Lausanne stages the World Cross Country Championships on the 29th-30th and, in golf, Sawgrass welcomes the Players' Championship.
APRIL: It's Aintree Grand National time, swiftly followed by the Fairyhouse version, with Ted Walsh and Jenny Pitman, once again, taking on the Animal Liberation Front. Ireland travel to Tirana to play Albania in the Euro 2004 qualifiers, and the snooker world championships, em, cue off, in Sheffield. Augusta will see Padraig Harrington win his first major, the Masters. No pressure PH.
MAY: The English FA Cup final takes place, again, in Wales' Millennium Stadium - an Irish solution to an English stadium-less problem, you might say. Rugby's Heineken Cup final follows a week later at Lansdowne Road, before the French tennis Open gets under way at Roland Garros. Then there's the Champions League final at Old Trafford where home advantage will . . . maybe not.
JUNE: The largest sporting event ever staged in Ireland - the 11th Special Olympics - has its opening ceremony at Croke Park on Saturday, 21st June. Over nine days 7,000 athletes from 166 countries will compete in 21 disciplines. The Munster and Ulster hurling finals, the Epsom, Irish and French Derbys, the Oaks, Wimbledon and Ireland's Euro 2004 qualifiers against Albania and Georgia make it an extra busy month, not to mention Olympia Fields, Illinois, being the scene of Padraig Harrington's second major triumph, the US Open.
JULY: The Tour de France starts on the fifth and is scheduled to end on the 27th - if, however, there is a serious crackdown on the use of performance enhancing drugs it will end in February 2007. In the golfing world, the K Club stages the European Open (3rd-6th) and the Irish Open takes place at Portmarnock (24th-27th) where the wimin, if they're lucky, will be allowed in to make the sangwidges. It's a quiet month in GAA circles, apart from the Ulster, Leinster, Connacht and Munster football finals and the Leinster hurling final. Then there's the British Open at Royal St George's, where Padraig Harrington will win his third major.
AUGUST: Fasten your seatbelts - we could be dripping in gold by the end of the month. The World Athletics and Rowing Championships take place, respectively, in Paris and Milan. Open top buses at the ready. The RDS, as per usual, plays host to the Dublin Horse Show, the US tennis Open starts at Flushing Meadows and Oak Hill hosts the US PGA Championship, where Padraig Harrington will complete a grand slam of majors.
SEPTEMBER: It's hurling and football finals time at Croke Park, while Ireland meet Russia at Lansdowne in the Euro 2004 qualifiers and Ireland's men's and women's teams head for Barcelona for the hockey European Nations Cup.
OCTOBER: The Rugby World Cup starts on the 10th and, frankly, goes on forever (until November 22nd, to be precise). There are a couple of big horsey events - the Prix de l'Arc and the Breeders' Cup - not to mention Ireland's trip to Berne where they will hope to exact brutal revenge on the Swiss for that Lansdowne defeat in their Euro 2004 qualifier.
NOVEMBER: Sonia might be tempted again by the New York Marathon (on the 2nd), while Padraig and young Graeme McDowell might be spotted in Kiawah Island, home to the golfing World Cup.
DECEMBER: Edinburgh will be the scene of the European Cross Country Championships and Burton on Trent will stage the British Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships. Alright, alright, it's a quiet month.
