Luke Littler dismantles Aspinall to make PDC world championship last four

Nathan Aspinall probably thinks he just took part in a game of darts. And look, his name was definitely on the scoreboard, and you may have glimpsed him on your television grinning away in the background, and in a few days’ time there will be a hefty bank transfer from the Professional Darts Corporation confirming he did, indeed, participate.But while Aspinall may have been here corporeally, in a very real sense he wasn’t actually here at all. He was essentially a tower of pixels, a mannequin, an uncredited extra, the silent letter in the middle of a word. He was one of those characters in a noughties video game who walks into a wall and disappears

PDC World Darts Championship: Littler overpowers Aspinall to set up Bunting clash – as it happened

Chris Dobey 5-3 Gerwyn PriceMichael van Gerwen 5-3 Callan RydzPeter Wright 2-5 Stephen BuntingLuke Littler 5-2 Nathan AspinallA very good day of darts, with one classic match in Van Gerwen v Rydz. I’m shattered so I’m going to wrap this up, but Jonathan Liew’s report will be along shortly. In the meantime here’s his take on the afternoon games.Niall McVeigh will be here tomorrow night for the semi-finals: Van Gerwen v Dobey and Littler v Bunting. It’ll be great, it always is

Michael van Gerwen edges Callan Rydz in epic at PDC world championship

They call 1 January, world championship quarter-final day, the greatest day in the darting calendar. Well: come back in another 364 days to see if there’s been a better match than this. Michael van Gerwen is a semi-finalist again, beating Callan Rydz, and if the headline facts feel unremarkable enough, then rarely, if ever, will he have been pushed, challenged and interrogated as he was here by the likeable Geordie.Rydz, perhaps the outstanding performer to this point, was magnificent, outdoing the great Van Gerwen on almost every conceivable metric. He won 18 legs to 17

Tweaking the Olympics cycle is a champion idea | Letters

Sean Ingle’s suggestion of holding the Olympics every two years is an interesting one (Paris Olympics were great, so why not hold summer Games every two years?, 30 December). However, another option would be to take some or all of the indoor sports out of the summer Olympics and put them into the winter Games, alongside the current sports that under International Olympic Committee (IOC) statutes require snow or ice to be an essential and inherent feature.As well as maximising the profile of the Olympics every two years, this would reduce the financial and logistical loads of hosting the summer Games, while also spreading the excitement and interest in the winter Games beyond the reducing number of countries capable of hosting them.Back in 2014, as a newly elected president of an international federation affiliated to the IOC, I suggested this in a media interview. Needless to say, it did not make me popular, either with the IOC or with my contemporaries in other sports

It’s a washout: how Sydney’s Test cricket rain curse stops play and leaves Australian cities in its wake

Even if it doesn’t rain at the New Year’s Test, and the forecast a day before the first ball is promising, history suggests it would be safer to hold the match earlier in the cricket season. At least 26 full days of play have been rained out at the Sydney Test since the 1880s, according to the ABC statistician Ric Finlay.That’s three times more lost days than in Melbourne, which has hosted more matches. And even a higher rate than subtropical Brisbane, which was hit by storms during the third Test against India last month.Even when play in Sydney hasn’t been affected, there has been at least some rain on a third of the playing days in SCG Tests

Boulter’s win helps to see off Australia and fiance De Minaur in United Cup

As the Great Britain and Australia teams lined up before their highly anticipated United Cup tussle, Alex de Minaur and Katie Boulter savoured the last moment of peace in their household for the day, greeting each other on-court with a friendly kiss on the cheek. Then they retreated to their opposite corners of the arena and prepared to do battle.By the end of the night, De Minaur had claimed victory in their skirmish but Boulter and her team were triumphant in the war. Although Australia defeated Great Britain 2-1 in Sydney, the home team were knocked out of the United Cup as Great Britain advanced to the quarter-finals.Britain knew one straight-sets success from the three rubbers would be enough to see them top the group and Boulter opened the tie by clinching progress with a dominant 6-2, 6-1 win over Olivia Gadecki