Football
Chelsea are the new leaders in the tightly contested Premier League
title race, but they were made to work hard for a 1-0 win at Middlesbrough.
Previous leaders Liverpool were held 0-0 at Southampton.
Manchester City are third, but level on points with Liverpool, and only
one behind Chelsea, after finally coming through 2-1 against Crystal Palace.
After appearing to be totally out of contention for a place in the team, Yaya
Toure was not only recalled to the City starting line-up, but scored both of
his side’s goals.
Arsenal and Manchester United are fourth and sixth respectively, after a
late Olivier Giroud goal secured the Gunners a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford.
Fifth placed Tottenham maintained their unbeaten league record after
coming from behind in the dying minutes to beat West Ham 3-2. Spurs trailed 2-1
with two minutes of normal time remaining, before a Harry Kane brace turned the
match on its head.
Swansea slipped to the foot of the table, and are still to win under new
manager Bob Bradley, after a late Seamus Coleman goal gave Everton a share of
the points in a 1-1 draw.
Sunderland moved off the bottom after beating fellow strugglers Hull
3-0, Leicester’s domestic woes deepened as they lost 2-1 at Watford, and
Bournemouth beat Stoke 1-0.
Newcastle extended their lead at the top of the Championship to five
points with a 2-0 victory at Leeds. Second placed Brighton were held 1-1 by
Aston Villa, but the Seagulls retain a four point cushion over third placed
Reading.
Tennis
Andy Murray’s glittering year
ended in fine style as he beat his great rival Novak Djokovic in straight sets
in the final of the ATP World Tour Finals. Brushing aside concerns that he may
be jaded after both his semi-final and one of his group matches took over three
hours to complete, Murray was in imperious form. In 2016 the Scot won his
second Wimbledon title, won Olympic gold and ended the year with 24 straight
wins and five consecutive tournament victories. Nevertheless, he still needed
to win Sunday’s final to stay as world number one, ahead of Djokovic.
The older Murray brother,
Jamie, and his Brazilian doubles partner Bruno Soares finished the year as the
number one ranked doubles pairing. This was despite their semi-final defeat to Raven
Klaasen and Rajeev Ram. Finland's Henri Kontinen and Australian John Peers went
on to beat Klaasen and Ram in the doubles final.
Cricket
England fell to a heavy defeat in the Second Test against India in Visakhapatnam.
In a match where the toss appeared to be vitally important, India not
surprisingly took the chance to bat first, and scored 455. England could only
reply with 255, then as batting got more and more difficult, India made 204
second time around to leave England an unlikely 405 to win. After reaching
75-0, England collapsed to 158, giving India victory by 246 runs. Alastair
Cook, Ben Stokes, Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow all made half centuries at some
stage in the match. After his first innings 53, Bairstow remained 34 not out in
the second innings as the England line-up fell around him. The third Test
starts on December 8 and pace bowler Stuart Broad is extremely doubtful with a
foot injury.
England Women completed a 4-0 ODI series whitewash in Sri Lanka, but were
very grateful that their lower order batting came good in the final match. Nat Sciver (77) and Danielle Hazell (45) led the recovery from 58-6 to 240-9 in the
England innings. Sri Lanka could only manage 78 in reply, with Laura Marsh
claiming figures of 4-21. Despite the retirement of Charlotte
Edwards and the continued absence of experienced batsman/keeper Sarah Taylor,
England managed to win all six of their international series in 2016.
Rugby Union
England enjoyed a relatively comfortable 58-15 win over Fiji, scoring
nine tries in total, and racing into a 31-0 lead inside 27 minutes. Jonathan
Joseph and Joe Launchbury both scored two tries, although Launchbury could be
banned from the remaining autumn internationals after being cited for an
alleged kick in the head.
Ireland could not repeat their heroics of two weeks previously and lost
21-9 to New Zealand in Dublin.
Wales and Scotland both sneaked narrow wins. Wales beat Japan 33-30 and
Scotland beat Argentina (England’s next opponents) 19-16.
In the English Premiership, Saracens won 28-13 at Sale to remain top of
the table. Second placed Bath had to overcome a spirited display from
neighbours Bristol, who are still without a league win, before prevailing by a
13-6 margin.
Rugby
League
Australia retained the Four Nations title after beating
New Zealand 34-8 in the final.
Golf
Henrik Stenson of Sweden clinched the Race to Dubai
title, but it was Britain’s Matthew Fitzpatrick who won the DP Tour
Championship event in Dubai, one stroke ahead of Tyrrell Hatton.
Tipster Street.
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