Join us as we look ahead to the main sporting events of November, which could include historic moments for Lewis Hamilton in F1, the Great Britain mens tennis team, and the Republic Of Ireland football team.
November sees the climax of the Formula 1 season with races in Mexico (Nov 1st), Brazil (Nov 15th), and Abu Dhabi (Nov 29th). Now depending on how today’s race goes in Austin, Texas for the US GP the Drivers Championship could already be over as our own Lewis Hamilton needs nine more points than Sebastian Vettel, and two more than Nico Rosberg to clinch the title.
The main topic around football will be whether or not the Republic Of Ireland can join England, Wales, and Northern Ireland by qualifying for the European Championships in France 2016. They have play off matches against Bosnia-Herzegovina away on Friday 13th with the return leg on Monday 16th.
This will be the third time that the Republic have been involved in a play off situation. They reached Euro 2012 via the play-offs, with the side then managed by Giovanni Trapattoni beating Estonia 5-1 over two legs, but in November 2009 they were beaten in a play-off to reach the 2010 World Cup by France, who went through with the infamous Thierry Henry handball goal.
Elsewhere in the football world we have two more rounds of the Champions League, and with none of the 4 teams top of their prospective groups at the moment these games could make or break the teams season. Man Utd have home games against CSKA (Nov 3rd) and the PSV (25th), and Man City have consecutive away games against Sevilla and Juventus on the same dates. Chelsea are home to Dynamo Kiev (Nov 4th), and then away to Maccabi Tel Aviv on (24th), and Arsenal away first away to Bayern Munich, and then home to Dinamo Zagreb on the same dates.
And finally in the Premier League we have a south coast derby as Southampton take on new boys Bournemouth, a North London derby as Arsenal take on Tottenham, as well as Manchester City taking on Liverpool.
Staying in the UK we have the 2015 ATP World Tour Final being played at the O2 Arena in London between 15 and 22 November 2015. It is the season-ending event for the best singles players and doubles teams on the 2015 ATP World Tour.
It pits (barring withdrawals) the best eight singles and doubles players against each other in two groups of four for round robin matches, with the top two from each group going on to contest the semis, and then the finals. Andy Murray joined last years winner Novak Djokovic in qualifying for the Final back in August and has since been joined by Roger Federer, Stan Wawrinka, Rafa Nadal, and Thomas Berdych, with 2 players still to qualify.
Taking the Tour Title is first and foremost in all the players thoughts but with the winner taking home potentially £1.25 million in prize money it would be hard to say it is irrelevant.
And staying with males tennis we also could see some history over 27th-29th November as the Great Britain team has the chance to lift the Davis Cup for the first time since 1936 as they take on Belgium in Ghent, Belgium.
The 104th edition of the cup started with 125 nations with reigning Champions Switzerland knocked out in the first round of the World Finals by Belgium.
The finals are played over 5 matches (if that many are needed) split into 4 singles and 1 doubles match, and their current squad (subject to changes) includes brother Andy and Jamie Murray, Dan Evans and Domonic Inglot.
Over in the UFC November has 4 events with the highlight being the November 15th UFC 193 event coming from Melbourne, Australia headlined by Women’s Bantamweight Champion ‘Rowdy’ Rhonda Rousey taking on Holly ‘The Preachers Daughter’ Holm for the Title. Both fighters are currently undefeated, and come from stellar backgrounds with Rousey an Olympic medallist in Judo, and Holm a World boxing champion over 3 weight divisions. To see the memorable video that accompanies the bout please see the blog post The Revolution Of Women’s MMA.
And this is most certainly ladies night as the co-main event is also women’s title bout as Strawweight Champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk defends against Valerie ‘Trouble’ Letourneau.
Other events of note are the England cricket team continuing their overseas in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah against Pakistan. The Weightlifting World Championships in Houston, Texas, USA. And Australia’s major thoroughbred horse race the Melbourne Cup.