Pick Of The Week

Monday Sky Sports 1 (7.0) - Live Football: Leicester City v Derby County. TnaG (9.0) - Ole Ole

Monday Sky Sports 1 (7.0) - Live Football: Leicester City v Derby County. TnaG (9.0) - Ole Ole. Highlights of the Basque derby between Atletico Bilbao and Real Sociedad and Hibernian v Rangers, plus the rest of the goals from the top divisions in Spain and Scotland.

Tuesday BBC1 (8.30) - A Question of Sport. "It may seem different at first," says the blurb in the Radio Times, "but by the end of the show you'll feel reacquainted with an old friend" . . . which is a peculiar way of announcing a new series of the sports quiz which, for the first time, is presented by Sue Barker.

TnaG (8.30) - An Dorn Ceilteach (Celtic Fists). This week's programme looks at Celtic boxers of the modern era, including Steve Collins and Barry McGuigan.

TnaG (10.30) - All-Ireland Gold Foot- ball: Cork v Meath (1990 final).

READ MORE

WEDNESDAY

BBC2 (9.50) - The Rugby Club. Irish coach Brian Ashton features this week, in the days leading up to his resignation from Bath.

THURSDAY

BBC1 (2.10) - Golf: The World Match Play Championship. Coverage of the first round from Wentworth where Ernie Els is the defending champion. Highlights on BBC1 at 12.30 - coverage continues through to Sunday.

TnaG (10.30) - All-Ireland Gold Foot- ball: Laois v Monaghan (1996 women's final and replay).

Friday NETWORK TWO (6.05) - The Grip. This week the European and World Laser II Sailing Championships in Cork.

NETWORK TWO (8.30) - Sideline View. Previews Sunday's women's AllIreland football final and the draw for the 1998 All-Ireland Championships.

SATURDAY

UTV, NETWORK TWO (11.45) - Live Formula One: Japanese Grand Prix Qualifying. UTV's update at 5.20 features interviews with Jacques Villeneuve and Frank Williams.

NETWORK TWO (2.30) - Live Foot- ball: Ireland v Romania (World Cup Qualifier). There was more than a striking resemblance between Old Trafford's reluctance to publicly reveal the extent of Roy Keane's injury last week and China's traditional denials that a great leader had snuffed it. Most peculiar.

SKY SPORTS 2 (6.0) - Live Football: Italy v England (World Cup Qualifier). Interesting headline on ITV's Teletext on Saturday: `ITV to screen England live'. A quick flick of page 148 and the story read . . . "ITV will screen next Saturday's Italy-England crucial World Cup qualifier in Rome 15 minutes after the game has finished", which is an entirely new definition of the word "live". So, Sky are showing the match live (ie as it happens) and ITV are showing it live (as it happened earlier in the evening) at 10.0. A draw for England means they go through to the finals and we'll never hear the end of it.

SKY BOX OFFICE (10.0) - Live Box- ing: The Full Monty. The Full Monty? Chubby men appearing semi-naked on our screen? Well, yes. Eleven title fights in all, but the ones of real interest are Chris Eubank's comeback fight against Joe Calzaghe (WBO super-middleweight title) and Naseem Hamed's defence against household name Victor Llerena (WBO featherweight title).

NETWORK TWO (4.50 am), UTV (4.30 am) - Live Formula One: Japa- nese Grand Prix. In the penultimate race of the season Jacques Villeneuve will hope that the Schumacher brothers' relationship deteriorates further - ie crash, bang, thud, wallop - to allow him clinch the world championship. SUNDAY

NETWORK TWO (9.30) - Sunday Sport. Highlights of the women's All-Ireland football final plus the All-Ireland Championship draws.