Best and Worst 2012: Part one

It's back and this year it's bigger! Betting.Betfair contributors select their highs, lows and best bets for next year as they look back on 2012. In part one, KP gets a sledging, Frankel explodes and Lance Armstrong finds a supporter.

Jonathan Wilson

Moment of 2012: Zambia winning the Cup of Nations in Libreville, the city off the coast of which a plane exploded killing almost their entire squad in 1993. Seeing Kalusa Bwalya, now president of the FA, who was in the squad but played in the Netherlands so wasn't on the plane, weeping afterwards was the most emotional thing I've ever seen at a sporting event.

 Hero of 2012: Stoppila Sunzu, for scoring the final penalty after poor Rainford Kalaba had wasted a chance to win it with the previous kick.

Villain of 2012: Racist fans and those who jeer minute's silences.
 
Best Bet of 2012: Brandt Snedeker to win the Open at 300.00299/1 - laid it off at 14.0013/1. Or Mexico to win Olympic football gold at 21.020/1.

Bet for 2013: Ivory Coast to win the Cup of Nations. At last. Although not at 3.1511/5.

Ed Hawkins

Moment: Accepting Alastair Cook for the record-breaking runs-getter that he is. So he is an ugly son of a gun at the crease and watching him play a stroke might cause one of your own. I've come to terms with it.

Hero: Is it a bit of a cliche these days to say Mo Farah? Screw it. So what if it wasn't exactly the hottest of betting heats but this hardened cynic had tears in the eyes. Oh you want a cricketer? Ricky Ponting. A true great and sad to see him go. 
 
Villain: Has to be Kevin Pietersen. How the England players can forgive him for helping out the opposition, either with inside info or disparaging remarks, is beyond me.  
 
Best Bet: That would have to be Kolkata winning the IPL. The Knight Riders have often been the most overrated in the market since the inception of the tournament but this time they got it bang on. 
 
Bet for 2013: England to win the Ashes. I was asked my thoughts the other day by the Aussie, and suddenly it hit me. Despite the hype, I still see the same names in and around their bowling line-up: Siddle, Hilfenhaus, Johnson.

Gary Boswell

Moment: Mo Farah's double up takes some beating in an extraordinary year. Always been a fan and seriously rooting for him in the 5000 but I'm afraid I was one of the doubters on the day and thought he looked cooked with 400 metres to go. What a last lap that was. Rarely does my whooping and hollering get reduced to jaw-dropped silent awe!

Hero: I presume heroine is allowed. Laura Robson. I saw her serve in the flesh for the first time at Edgbaston in June and decided this was a woman to bet on for the next ten years! Since when she has beaten Lucie Safarova, Kim Clijsters, Li Na et al and won an Olympic Silver medal. Proud to be a British women's tennis fan again! 

Villain: Rupert Murdoch for his perfidy at the Levenson enquiry (and he didn't feature in a Betfair market -Ed) is a bit obvious so how about whoever was really responsible for the attempt to besmirch the good name of Mark Clattenberg? Or maybe that monster that purports to own Kettering Town? Ah, the list is endless!
 
Best Bet: Most memorable for me turns out to be a rare foray into men's tennis when I backed Andy Murray to win his inaugural Slam at Flushing Meadow in September at 8.07/1. So impressed with his Olympic exploits that I considered him a serious good thing on his favoured hard court. He's a fair call for next month in Melbourne too.
 
Bet for 2013: Oliver Sherwood's Puffin Billy for the Supreme Novices at the Cheltenham Festival. Or whichever race he goes in. Quite simply the most exciting young horse I've seen since Best Mate.

Eliot Pollak

Moment: Hearing Alex McLeish had been fired as manager of Aston Villa. The darkness had been lifted.
 
Hero: Lance Armstrong. Yes he cheated but the amount he raised for charity, and more importantly, the number of sufferers he inspired as a consequence of his winning, meant that he didn't deserve all the abuse he received.
 
Villain: Chelsea fans - treating a West Brom cast-off as Arigo Saachi and Alf Ramsey in one. 
 
Best Bet: Spain to win the Euros. Free money from the greatest international side of all time. 
 
Bet for 2013: Newcastle to go down. Beating 10 man Wigan don't mean a thing kids.

Graham Cunningham

Moment: When Frankel exploded clear at York.

Hero: Sir Henry Cecil

Villain: Orfevre for costing me a small fortune through his Arc waywardness.

Best Bet: An ante post touch on Wise Dan for the BC Mile.

Bet for 2013: That Frankie Dettori will come roaring back and Seabass will go off a lot shorter than 20-1 for the Grand National.

James Pacheco

Moment: Didier Drogba fires in the winning penalty in Munich. With a far better team under the great Mourinho they never came close, but this time they did it. In their opponents' backyard, under a caretaker manager, missing their captain through suspension, fielding a player making his Champions League debut in the final and with goalscorer Drogba on his way out, they finally delivered the trophy Abramovich so craved. 
 
Hero: Ian Poulter. As the European players and fans started to lose faith and the US accumulated points on the board, Ian Poulter hadn't read the script. On Saturday late afternoon he played like a man possessed, a one-man floodgate keeping out the US tide. He putted like a God under the utmost pressure and then came back the next day and did it all again. He's not one of my favourite players and he'll probably never win a Major but boy is he some Ryder Cup player.

Villain: Kevin Pietersen. To be guilty of bringing the ECB into disrepute once is unfortunate, to do it twice in three years is just wrong. But KP managed to do just that. A petulant retirement from limited-overs cricket, a nauseating Youtube clip retracting it, a few ill-timed and frankly inappropriate text messages and loony press conference culminated in him being ousted from the England set-up before new skipper Cook brought him back. Everyone wants to watch you bat Kevin but no-one wants to hear you talk.

Best Bet: Sunderland to go down. I backed Sunderland to go down at 6.05/1 before they lost to Norwich and at the time of writing they're 4.57/2 which is still a good price. No-one is too good to go down, they seem a side devoid of confidence and ideas and Steven Fletcher seems to be shouldering the full responsibility of getting the goals. Decent player though he is, he failed to get the goals to keep Wolves up last year so why should this time be any different?

Bet for 2013: Roger Federer to win Wimbledon at 6.05/1. He's the defending champion and for all of Novak Djokovic's brilliance and Andy Murray's constant improvement, you still have to play out of your skin to beat Fed at SW19. They've written him off before but I won't be doing that just yet.