Ultimate guide to all of the day’s sport – Friday, December 30th

The darts reaches the last eight while there’s also rugby and football to choose from

Seamus Coleman’s Everton take on Hull City in the Premier League on Friday. Photo: Carl Recine/Reuters
Seamus Coleman’s Everton take on Hull City in the Premier League on Friday. Photo: Carl Recine/Reuters

First off, what’s going on?

The darts reaches the quarter-final stages at the Alexandra Palace, Hull take on Everton in the Premier League, there’s Premiership and Top 14 rugby, Hearts play Aberdeen in the SPL and there’s some racing at Haydock, Taunton and Newcastle.

And what are the biggest events taking place?

1. Hull City v Everton.

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2. Raymond van Barneveld v Phil Taylor

What’s on TV?

At 1.0 you can start your day with the first two quarter-finals of the World Darts Championship.

And what an afternoon it is as defending champion Gary Anderson takes on Dave Chisnall who is playing in his first ever World Championship quarter-final.

That’s followed by red-hot Peter Wright taking on James Wade who comes into the game on the back of a comeback win over Michael Smith.

If that doesn’t get you going and you’re more of a hurling man then at 3.05 you can re-watch the 2016 Senior Hurling Championship clash of Tipperary and Galway on TG4.

At 7.0 it’s back to the darts for the final two quarter-finals, including the game everyone has been waiting for.

First up it’s what looks to be a formality for Michael van Gerwen as he takes on Derry’s Daryl Gurney.

And then the big one. There’s 21 world titles between Phil Taylor and Raymond van Barneveld and tomorrow night at the Alexandra Palace the two darting heavyweights meet for a place in the semi-finals.

But, again if darts doesn’t do it for you, there is also evening football and rugby action to choose between.

At 7.40 Lyon take on Bordeaux-Begles on Sky Sports 2 in their Top14 clash while five minutes later on BT Sport 1 it’s Newcastle v Wasps in the Aviva Premiership.

At the same time Hearts get underway against Aberdeen on BT Sport 2 before Hull welcome Everton in the only Premier League tie of the day on Sky Sports 1 at 8.0.

I feel like having a bet. Any recommendations?

Everton look to be slowly coming back into form and go into their clash with Hull on the back of a 2-0 away win against Leicester on Stephen’s Day. They were unlucky in their previous game to lose out to a last-minute winner against Liverpool and, in the game previous, claimed a huge win over Arsenal.

They come up against a Hull side who haven’t scored in their last three games and lost 10 of their last 13 league games.

Everton at a handicap of -1 look tempting at odds of 13-5 and perhaps even more tempting at 7-1 with a handicap of -2.

Ruaidhrí Croke

Ruaidhrí Croke

Ruaidhrí Croke is a sports journalist with The Irish Times