First off, what’s going on?
With 2016 and all of its ills now passed, let’s hope for better as this millennium enters its 17th years. Yes, its 17th. Italia ’90 was 27 calendar years ago, 27! This year it’ll be 10 years since Pádraig Harrington claimed his first major championship at Carnoustie. Ten years! It’s 20 years since Borussia Dortmund won the Champions League and...okay I’ll stop. It’s 2017, in case you hadn’t noticed.
Now, back to the question. To kick off the new year we have racing at Fairyhouse and Tramore as well six meetings in the UK, two Premier League matches, two mouth-watering semi-final clashes in the darts and some Pro12, Top 14 and Premiership rugb y action to keep you all going.
And what are the biggest events taking place?
1. Watford v Tottenham Hotspur.
2. Arsenal v Crystal Palace.
3. Raymond van Barneveld v Michael van Gerwen.
4. Peter Wright v Gary Anderson.
What’s on TV?
At 1.0 you can tune into UTV’s brand new racing coverage, headed by former Sky Sports football presenter Ed Chamberlain. After Channel 4 said goodbye to their 25 years of covering UK racing on Thursday, UTV now take over. On Sunday they will broadcast the best of the action from Cheltenham and Musselburgh.
At 1.30 the football action kicks off on Sky Sports 1 where Watford take on Tottenham. Mauricio Pochettino’s side come into the game off the back of a 4-1 win over Southampton and can leapfrog Arsenal into fourth place for a few hours at least.
At 3.0 there’s rugby action to choose from and it’s a choice of Pro12 or the English Premiership.
If you go for the Pro12 option you’ll get the Welsh derby of Scarlets and Cardiff Blues on Sky Sports 2. Scarlets will be looking to avenge their 27-16 loss to their Welsh rivals on St Stephen’s Day.
Meanwhile, on BT Sport 1 you can catch Leicester Tigers and Saracens battling it out.
Then, at 4.0 on Sky Sports 1 Arsenal will hope to regain their familiar position of fourth place – if Spurs have beaten Watford – when they take on Crystal Palace.
After that second London derby of the day there will just be enough time to get some dinner in before tuning in to Sky Sports 3 at 7.0 for the semi-finals at the World Darts Championship from Alexandra Palace.
And what a semi-final line-up it is. First up is the clash of defending champion Gary Anderson taking on Peter Wright.
Wright looks like a man on a mission this year and has been extremely impressive so far. However, Anderson is going for three world championships in a row and looks more than at home in the Alexandra Palace.
If that doesn’t whet the appetite (then you should probably get that appetite checked) the second semi-final will certainly do so.
That’s because it’s the titanic battle of two of the best players in the history of the game. The Dutch duo of Raymond van Barneveld go head-to-head for a place in the final and what a game it promises to be.
If darts doesn’t quite to it for you then you can catch the Top 14 tie between Toulon and Racing 92 on Sky Sports 5 at 7.45.
Then, to round of the evening, you can catch up on all of the day’s goals (including action from the seven Premier League games on New Year’s Eve) on Match of the Day 2 at 11.0 on BBC 1.
And what can I actually go to?
There are two race meeting in Ireland for you to choose from on the first day of 2017 with Tramore and Fairyhouse on the cards.
At Tramore it’s just €15 admission on the gate with live music afterwards to keep the New Year’s party going. The action gets underway there at 12.0.
Further north and in the county of Meath it’s Fairyhouse where the action takes place. Admission on the gate for an adult is €20 and €15 for a student. However, you can buy tickets online for just €16 here.
The first race goes to post there at 12.20.
I feel like having a bet. Any tips?
It’s darts today and a double on the two world championship semi-finals.
While Peter Wright has looked very impressive so far, this is really the first elite competition he’s come up against.
Gary Anderson has been unstoppable at the Alexandra Palace for the last two years and it’ll take something special for Wright to do what hasn’t been done since 2014 and knock the Scot out.
At 6-4 with a handicap of -2.5 (meaning he must win by three sets or more in a match that’s up to six sets), Anderson is hard to turn down.
As for the second match it’s hard to see anyone stopping Michael van Gerwen. And, after the mammoth effort it took to beat Phil Taylor on Friday, it doesn’t look like Raymond van Barneveld will be the man to do that.
However, these two men hits 180s for fun. At times van Gerwen hits nine darters for fun. With odds of 9-1 for either player to pull off a perfect leg it’d be rude not to.
Combine that with Anderson at a handicap of -2.5 and your fiver will pay out €125.
