Ricky Evans (darts player)

Ricky Evans (born 29 July 1990 in Kettering, Northamptonshire) is an English professional darts player currently playing in Professional Darts Corporation events.

Ricky Evans
Personal information
Full nameRicky Ian Evans
NicknameRapid
Born(1990-07-29)29 July 1990
Kettering, Northamptonshire, England
Darts information
Playing darts since2005
DartsTarget 19g Ricky Evans Gen 1 Tungsten 90%
LateralityRight-handed
Walk-on music"YMCA" by Village People
Organisation (see split in darts)
BDO2007–2013
PDC2013–
Current world ranking27
BDO majors – best performances
World MastersLast 48: 2012
PDC premier events – best performances
World Ch'shipLast 32: 2014, 2016, 2020
World MatchplayLast 32: 2019, 2020
World Grand PrixLast 32: 2018, 2019
Grand SlamGroup Stage: 2013
European Ch'shipQuarter Final: 2019
UK OpenLast 32: 2016, 2018, 2020
Players Ch'ship FinalsLast 16: 2018
Other tournament wins
PDC Challenge Tour England 2013
PDC World Championship Qualifier 2015
PDC Youth Tour England 2011

Career

From 2007 to 2012 Evans attempted to qualify for each BDO World Championship but was unsuccessful on each occasion.[1] In 2011, Evans won a PDC Youth Tour event by beating David Coyne 4–1 in the final.[2] He has played in the World Masters five times with his best finish coming in 2012 where he lost in the last 48 to James Wilson.[1][3]

In 2013, Evans played in the Qualifying School to earn a tour card for the Professional Darts Corporation events and succeeded on the first day.[4] Less than two months later he reached the quarter-finals of a PDC Pro Tour event for the first time by beating Gary Anderson 6–5 in the last 16 of the second UK Open Qualifier, before he lost 6–3 to Peter Wright.[5] This saw him enter the UK Open in the second round stage where he was defeated 5–2 by Joe Cullen.[6] Evans won through to the final of the World Under-21 World Championship which was played on the finals night of the Premier League Darts at the O2 Arena in London, with Evans losing 6–1 to Michael Smith.[7] However, the result was enough to see him reach the Grand Slam of Darts for the first time, but he lost each of his Group E games to Raymond van Barneveld, Mervyn King and Tony O'Shea to finish bottom of the table.[8]

Evans advanced to his first final in main PDC events at the 13th Players Championship of the year. He beat established players such as Gary Anderson, Ronnie Baxter, Jamie Caven and Ian White, before losing 6–3 against Brendan Dolan.[9] Evans' successful debut season continued later in the month as he was a losing semi-finalist at the final Players Championship.[10] He amassed £11,550 in ProTour events during the year which saw him qualify through the Order of Merit for his first PDC World Championship where he outplayed the experienced Baxter in the first round to win 3–0 in sets.[11][12] Evans next faced 14th seed Mervyn King but ultimately fell to the veteran 4–2 in sets. After the match King praised Evans' performance and described him as "the future of our sport". Evans was ranked world number 56 after his debut season on the PDC tour.[13]

He could not get beyond the last 128 in any of the six qualifiers for the 2014 UK Open which resulted in him failing to qualify for the event.[14] Evans' form improved as the year progressed by qualifying for the final two European Tour events. At the European Darts Grand Prix he beat Jelle Klaasen 6–3, but lost 6–5 against Vincent van der Voort in the second round and at the European Darts Trophy he was eliminated in the first round 6–5 by Klaasen.[15][16] In November, Evans reached the last 16 for the only time this year at the 20th and final Players Championship where he lost 6–3 to Ian White.[17]

At the second UK Open Qualifier of 2015, Evans progressed through to his first quarter-final in over a year where he lost 6–3 to Vincent van der Voort.[18] He reached the third round of the UK Open for the first time by beating Mark Layton 5–3, but then lost 9–4 to James Wilson.[19] A second quarter-final appearance this year came at the fifth Players Championship where, after defeating Colin Osborne, Andy Smith, Jamie Robinson and Devon Petersen, he lost 6–2 to Keegan Brown.[20]

Evans won the qualifier for the 2016 World Championship with a 5–4 victory over Andy Boulton.[21] He played 2010 runner-up Simon Whitlock in the first round and, having trailed 2–0 in sets and 2–0 in legs (surviving two match darts), Evans mounted a comeback to eventually win the match 3–2 with a 130 checkout.[22] However, Evans lost 10 legs in a row in his second round match against Jamie Caven to be knocked out 4–0.[23] A 9–5 victory over Andy Boulton saw Evans play in the fourth round of the UK Open for the first time, but he missed match darts against Darren Webster to lose 9–8 after leading 4–1 early on.[24] A quarter-final appearance came at the seventh Players Championship event (lost 6–2 to Gerwyn Price) and he went one better at the 16th event to reach his first semi-final in nearly three years.[25] He also missed double 12 for a nine darter during the day, before losing 6–4 to Steve West in the last four.[26] These results have seen Evans qualify for the Players Championship Finals and he will face James Wade in the first round.[27]

Evans' first round match with Michael Smith at the 2017 World Championship went to a deciding set in which he failed to win a leg to be beaten 3–2.[28] He reached the semi-finals of the first UK Open Qualifier, but lost 6–4 to Adrian Lewis.[29]

At the 2018 Dutch Darts Championship, Evans made his first PDC European Tour final, where he lost 8–5 to Ian White. [30]

In 2019, he followed that up with another runner-up spot at Players Championship 6 before reaching his second European Tour final at the 2019 German Darts Championship, where he lost 8–6 to Daryl Gurney.

Playing style

Evans is known for his incredible dart throwing speed, and has been described by Sky pundit Wayne Mardle as the quickest player he's ever seen. Evans will usually throw three darts within three to five seconds of approaching the oche unless changing position or going for a double, a trait which has led to his nickname of 'Rapid'.

During the 2017 World Championship, Evans hit a 180 in just 2.16 seconds during his first round match against Michael Smith.[31]

World Championship Performances

PDC

Performance timeline
Tournament20102011201220132014201520162017201820192020
PDC World Championship DNP 2R DNQ 2R 1R DNQ 1R 3R
UK Open 2R DNP 3R DNQ 3R 4R 3R 4R 4R 5R
World Matchplay DNP DNQ 1R 1R
World Grand Prix DNP DNQ 1R 1R
European Championship DNP DNQ 2R QF
Grand Slam of Darts DNP RR DNQ
Players Championship Finals DNP DNQ 1R DNQ 3R 2R
Performance timeline legend
DNP Did not play in the event #R lost in the early rounds of the tournament
(RR = Round robin)		 QF lost in the quarter-finals
SF lost in the semi-finals F lost in the final W won the tournament
gollark: Plus different stuff for managing services.
gollark: Many of them have different sets of available packages and stuff, or different package managers, or different desktop environments (you can usually swap them, though).
gollark: There are quite significant differences between distros, actually.
gollark: But I don't think it's the most common or easy distro.
gollark: It's overly commercialised. I don't really know a huge amount else about it, really.

References
  1. "Ricky Evans BDO Events". Darts Database. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  2. "2011 PDC Youth Tour England Results". Darts Database. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  3. "2012 World Masters Results". Darts Database. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  4. "PDC Qualifying School Day One". PDC.tv. Professional Darts Corporation. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  5. "Mighty Mike Completes Crawley Double". PDC. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  6. "2013 UK Open Results". Darts Database. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  7. "Van Gerwen's McCoy's Premier League Glory". PDC. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  8. "2013 Grand Slam Of Darts Results". Darts Database. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  9. "Maiden Triumph For Dolan". PDC. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  10. "2013 PDPA Players Championship Barnsley Results". Darts Database. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  11. "2013 ProTour Order of Merit". PDC. Archived from the original on 27 November 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  12. "Ladbrokes World Championship Day Four". PDC. 16 December 2013.
  13. "Order of Merit on 2 January 2014". PDC. Archived from the original on 2 January 2014. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
  14. "Ricky Evans 2014". Darts Database. Archived from the original on 4 December 2014. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  15. "European Darts Grand Prix Day Two". PDC. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  16. "European Darts Trophy Day One". PDC. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  17. "2014 PDPA Players Championship Coventry Results". Darts Database. Retrieved 4 December 2014.
  18. "Mighty Mike Claims Wigan Win". PDC. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  19. "Coral UK Open Third Round". PDC. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  20. "2015 PDPA Players Championship Barnsley Results". Darts Database. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
  21. "PDPA Qualifier Joy For Evans & Boulton". PDC. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
  22. "William Hill World Championship Draw". PDC. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
  23. "William Hill World Championship Day Eight". PDC. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  24. "2016 Coral UK Open Fourth Round". PDC. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  25. "Price Is Wright For Gerwyn in Barnsley". PDC. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
  26. "Nine-Dart van Gerwen Completes Barnsley Treble!". PDC. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
  27. "2016 Players Championship Finals Fixtures". Darts Database. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
  28. "William Hill World Championship Day One". PDC. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
  29. "UK Open Qualifier 1". PDC. 3 February 2017. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  30. https://www.pdc.tv/news/2018/09/09/emotional-white-lifts-first-euro-title
  31. "Ricky Evans struck a maximum 180 in just 2.16 seconds at the World Darts Championship". Sky Sports. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
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