Highlights of the 2025 sporting calendar January-June: Women's Euros, Ryder Cup, Ashes

Nick Metcalfe is relishing the prospect of the next 12 months and looks ahead to 20 events to come in this special festive feature. This is part two.

Wimbledon

• June 30-July 13, SW19

How much for a punnet of strawberries? Is this the way to Henman Hill? Yes, I know the queue is 10 hours long but I'm bloody well joining it, I've brought a tent and everything. Nearly everything about Wimbledon is a cliche, but there's no question it's a landmark moment in any sporting year. The men's event does feel different now, with no Andy Murray for us to cheer on any more, and legends Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal both retired. Another all-time great Novak Djokovic has lost the last two finals to Carlos Alcaraz and it won't be a surprise if that's the showpiece match again. As for the women, it would be nice to think Britain's former US Open champion Emma Raducanu can have a summer free of injury. Picking the winner of the women's singles title has become a hazardous business. There have been seven different champions since Serena Williams claimed her last title in 2017, with Barbora Krejcikova victorious in 2024.

British Grand Prix

• July 6, Silverstone

The vast crowds alone tell us that Silverstone is not just any old stop on the British sporting roadshow. It will be fascinating when the 2025 Formula One season gets under way in March to see how seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton fares with new team Ferrari, following 12 years with Mercedes. Come July, with the British race being the 12th of 24 in another packed calendar, we'll already have a very decent idea of how his season is likely to pan out. Hamilton stormed to a ninth British Grand Prix victory in 2024, his first F1 win since 2021. If he's to make it 10, he'll likely need to get the the better of Max Verstappen, the sport's preeminent force and winner of the last four world titles.

Women's Euro 2025

• July 2-July, Switzerland

I think the growth of women's football has possibly been the happiest development in the national sport over the past decade. It was hard to believe the levels of fever pitch as England went for glory at the last Euros in 2022. I was at Wembley to see them beat Germany 2-1 in the final and it was one of the most joyous days of sport I can recall. An extraordinary television audience of more than 17 million watched that game in the UK, proving that the women's game was finally on the map for good. Sarina Wiegman's team are among those strongly fancied to go all the way again in Switzerland. England are in the same group as Wales - who have qualified for their first ever major women's tournament - France, and the Netherlands.

Tour de France

• July 5-July 27, France

This summer spectacular can be an acquired taste, but while it felt like a genuinely niche interest when I was growing up, it has been far more mainstream in Britain over the last 20 years, especially with all the success for home cyclists. Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar will be defending his title, having won the race for the third time in 2024. Much of the enjoyment in following Le Tour can simply be found in enjoying the stunning vistas and sumptuous views. The 2025 race is pretty unusual these days, in that the whole shebang is actually in France. It kicks off in Lille and ends in Paris and a return to the familiar Champs-Elysees scenes we missed out on in the summer of 2024, when the race finished in Nice due to the forthcoming Olympic Games in the French capital.

Open Championship

• July 17-20, Portrush, Northern Ireland

There are some days in sport when those of us who work in this business just can't believe how fortunate we are. The Saturday of the Royal Portrush Open in 2019 was one of those for me. I followed Shane Lowry as he played the golf of his life, willed on by what can only be described as a tidal wave of emotion. It was truly heady stuff, and all Lowry had to do a day later was mind his work and pick up the Claret Jug. Truth be told, the whole week in Portrush was a right old knees-up and I see no reason why it won't be the same this time round. If Rory McIlroy gets himself into contention - you may recall that he made an eight on the first hole in 2019 and missed the cut - the place will be bedlam.

Women's Rugby World Cup

• August 22-September 27, England

If we see a final between England and New Zealand, nobody is going to be surprised, as that's been the case at five of the last six World Cups. The only problem for England? They don't win any of them. Their 34-31 defeat in the showpiece match of the last tournament in New Zealand was particularly painful. Can home advantage make the difference for England this time? There could well be a full house at Twickenham for the final on September 27, with ticket sales for the tournament being really strong. I promise you I'm not an official salesperson for the event, but I notice that matches are spread around the country and that tickets are very reasonably priced. I may see you there.

World Athletics Championship

• September 13-21, Tokyo, Japan

There's always a bit of a danger that the World Championship a year after the Olympics can feel a little After the Lord Mayor's Show. But that would be selling short what promises to be a terrific week of track and field action in Tokyo. Britain's Keely Hodgkinson will be hoping to follow up her women's 800m success from Paris with another gold on the world stage. And a number of those athletes that so agonisingly missed out on first place at the Games - like Matthew Hudson-Smith in the men's 400m and Josh Kerr in the men's 1500m - will want to put that right with gold here. The sprint finals promise to be fascinating - you may remember that crazy men's 100m final in Paris, when the athlete in eighth and last place - Jamaica's Oblique Seville - finished only 0.12 seconds behind the winner, America's Noah Lyles.

Ryder Cup

• September 26-28, New York, USA

There are a few sporting events that are absolutely guaranteed to deliver the goods for the watching world and this is one of them. Being on the first tee at a Ryder Cup is right up there among any top level experiences for your discerning sports fanatic. The only real problem with modern contests is that the home side keeps winning. Take away the Miracle at Medinah in 2012 and it's been victory for the hosts all the way in the past two decades. We're expecting that to be the case again at Bethpage Black come the autumn, although the match will surely be closer than when the Americans won 19-9 at Whistling Straits in 2021. For one thing, Europe's captain Luke Donald has done the job already, and superbly so as his team triumphed in Rome in 2023. Also, there will be proper European support this time, something that was prevented at Whistling Straits by the Covid pandemic. Those visiting fans will need to work hard to make themselves heard, as the New York galleries are expected to create a bear-pit atmosphere.

Super League Grand Final

• October 11, Old Trafford, Manchester

When I was a wee lad, the greatest one-off occasion in rugby league was the Challenge Cup final. Despite the obvious romance of that competition, it would be impossible to argue that is the case now. No day in the sport in the UK is bigger than the Super League Grand Final. Old Trafford is not a place for the faint-hearted, as these matches can be bruising affairs. Wigan have won the last two Finals, with their 2024 victory meaning a clean sweep of all the major trophies. The contests have become notably low-scoring in recent times too. In the last 10 years alone, we've seen these scorelines: 12-6, 12-4, 8-4, 12-10, 10-2 and 9-2. Truly, no quarter given. That's how much it means on these stirring Saturday nights in Manchester.

The Ashes

• November 21-January 8, Australia

This ancient sporting contest stirs the soul of millions of sports fans. We'll know a lot more about the state of the England team by the time the first Test starts in November, especially after the summer series against India. We certainly know that the Australians, both players and fans, will be as fired up as ever to stick one on the Poms. England's record in Australia is extremely poor - their victory in the 2010-11 series under captain Andrew Strauss was treasured by fans, but it's still their only success Down Under since the 1980s. Also, lest we forget that England haven't won an Ashes series anywhere since 2015. The first three Tests are in Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide, while the last two matches are at two of sport's truly hallowed arenas, the MCG for the Boxing Day Test and the SCG in the opening days of 2026.

Part one of Nick's look ahead to 2025 in sport can be found by clicking here. You can follow him on X, @Nick_Metcalfe, and listen to his Talking Snooker podcast via all major platforms. You can also read his regular snooker columns via our snooker index, including this look back at 2024.