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Our summer of sport is looking bright

Is there anything more summer than cricket? (Photo: AAP images).
Expert
8th October, 2015
7

The temperature is rising, the heat is on – summer is coming and with it, an enormous amount of sport both on Australian shores and internationally just waiting to happen.

The time of winter sports in Australia, of the AFL and the NRL has come to an end for another year, and now we’re turning our eyes towards the sports that will captivate us all summer long.

Dominating the Australian summer of sport as always is the cricket. There’s something great about the cricket, and maybe it has something to do with that great excuse for setting up shop in the lounge room all summer long, watching every ball of a Test.

This year Australia hosts six international Tests in two series of three, one hosting New Zealand and the other hosting the West Indies.

This begins on Thursday November 5 when once again Australia’s summer of international cricket kicks off at the Gabba where we’ll host New Zealand. Then two more Tests follow against New Zealand, at the WACA on Friday November 13, and then at Adelaide Oval starting Friday November 27.

That Test at Adelaide is the country’s first day-night Test with play expected to begin around 2:30pm each day.

After that a three-Test series against the West Indies awaits, beginning with the first in Hobart on Thursday December 10, followed by the traditional fixtures in Melbourne on Boxing Day and in Sydney at New Years.

Test cricket is just the cream of the crop of course when it comes to the summer of cricket, with international short-form cricket and local competitions also bound to figure in. As well as the Sheffield Shield we’ll again see the highly-popular Twenty20 Big Bash League.

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Running throughout the summer of course will also be football’s A-League, beginning shortly after the dominant winter competitions and running its course through to the A-League Grand Final on 1 May 2016.

This year Melbourne Victory are looking to defend the championship/premiership double that they claimed in the 2014-15 season, but the competition will again be fierce.

This summer will also see the W-League return to our screens after finishing up earlier than usual in the 2014 season.

The first tennis Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open, will again hit Melbourne in January, with the big personalities of tennis once again set to capture our attention and imagination.

It’ll be something of a unique occasion this time around as Aussie tennis legend Lleyton Hewitt takes to the court for the last time, having confirmed a while ago that he’ll retire after he appears in this, his twentieth Australian Open.

This year the Australian Open begins on January 18 and continues through to January 31, at the height of Australia’s sporting summer.

Australia’s famous Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race will take place again this summer with eight-time champion Wild Oats set to defend its honours against an ever-faster field.

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The race started back in 1945 when it took more than six and a half days to compete but has become a speedier and speedier affair over the course of its history.

This year, in the seventieth anniversary of that first race, vessels from around the world will continue to push for faster and faster times. The race is typically won in about two days or so now, but it took just over 42 hours back in 2012.

Australia’s most prominent cycling race the Tour Down Under continues to garner more and more attention and in 2016 that will be no different.

First run in 1999 the Tour Down Under became the first UCI ProTour in Australia in 2008, and in 2009 attracted big name Lance Armstrong to make his comeback at the race, seriously putting it on the map.

Raced over six days in and around Adelaide in 2016 the Tour Down Under begins on January 19 and goes through to January 24.

Sneaking in on either side of a big summer are some other major events on the Australian sporting calendar. The Spring Racing Carnival is just getting underway, leading into the ‘race that stops a nation’, the Melbourne Cup on November 3.

On the other bookend of the summer will be the Australian Formula One Grand Prix, which will once again kick off the year’s Formula One calendar from Albert Park.

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And of course that’s just the sport being held on Australian soil. For those who love their sport around the clock, major international codes like the English Premier League and the National Football League in the US will be running over the summer as well – if you don’t mind staying up to watch.

All in all, it’s set to be another enormous summer of sport.

As the Australian sporting summer heats up, you’ll need to cool down that living room. Watch live sport in the cool comfort of your home with ActronAir.

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