St George’s Day – what a fantastic time of the year celebrating our wonderful multicultural nation by drinking gallons of Guinness, listening to New Yorkers the Ramones, trying not to spill the Indian takeaway on your fancy French designer shirts while betting on greyhounds reared in Ireland. Heaven!
But wait, there’s just one thing – this year April 23 is not St George’s Day.
The Church of England has put back the date to Monday, April 28 because no saint’s day can take place in the week before or after Easter.
The traditional St George’s Day is also a big day for birthdays, including William Shakespeare, painter JMW Turner, actress Shirley Temple, crooner Roy Orbison, England international Steph Houghton and snooker player Barry Hawkins, who can hopefully enjoy his day despite his shock 10-9 defeat to Hossein Vafei at The Crucible.
The World Snooker Championship is deep into the first week and defending champion Kyren Wilson and previous winner Neil Robertson are also shock first-round casualties while an ‘emotionally drained’ John Higgins, who celebrates his 50th birthday next month, beat Joe O’Connor 10-7 to reach the second round.
The Scot, ranked No.3 in the world, won the last of his four titles at this tournament in Sheffield in 2011 but has captured the World Open and Tour Championship since the turn of the year and in between those triumphs he reached the quarter-finals of the World Grand Prix and the last four at the Players’ Championship.
He’s a man in form, just like his beloved Celtic, and can cruise into the third round by beating Xiao Guodong by more than 2.5 frames at 19/20 with William Hill and 888Sport.
After that there are potentially tricky roadblocks in his half of the draw in Judd Trump, Shaun Murphy, Ding Junhui and another wily old veteran in the shape of Mark Williams – if they avoid joining the list of early casualties.
Higgins, however, can roll back the years and set up a birthday party for the ages by becoming the 2025 world champion and is worth an each-way bet at 10/1 with Ladbrokes, Coral, Betfred and StarSports.
• Rory McIlroy returns to action for the first time since finally pulling on the famous green jacket at Augusta when he teams up with fellow Irishman Shane Lowry at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. The defending champions can retain their crown at a widespread 7/2 but also have an each-way bet on Billy Horschel and Tom Hoge at 20/1 with William Hill.
• Jelena Ostapenko is the hot hand going into the women’s singles at the Madrid Open after beating Iga Swiatek in the quarter-finals on the clay in Stuttgart and then Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets in the final. She is worth an each-way wager at 25/1 with Betfred to triumph in the Spanish capital.