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Ricky Evans (darts player)

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Ricky Evans
Evans in 2023
Personal information
Nickname"Rapid"
Born (1990-07-29) 29 July 1990 (age 34)
Kettering, Northamptonshire, England
Home townKettering, Northamptonshire, England
Darts information
Playing darts since2005
DartsBulls 19g
LateralityRight-handed
Walk-on music"YMCA" by Village People
Organisation (see split in darts)
BDO2007–2013
PDC2013–
(Tour Card: 2013-)
Current world ranking44 Steady (31 October 2024)[1]
WDF major events – best performances
World MastersLast 48: 2012
PDC premier events – best performances
World Ch'shipLast 32: 2014, 2016, 2020, 2021, 2024
World MatchplayLast 32: 2019, 2020
World Grand PrixLast 32: 2018, 2019
UK OpenSemi Final: 2024
Grand SlamGroup Stage: 2013, 2020
European Ch'shipQuarter Final: 2019
PC FinalsLast 16: 2018
World Series FinalsLast 24: 2019
Other tournament wins
PDC Challenge Tour England 2013
PDC World Championship Qualifier 2015
PDC Youth Tour England 2011

Richard Ian Evans[2] (born 29 July 1990) is an English professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He is nicknamed "Rapid" Ricky Evans due to his very fast throwing speed.

Career

[edit]

From 2007 to 2012 Evans attempted to qualify for each BDO World Championship but was unsuccessful.[3] In 2011, Evans won a PDC Youth Tour event by beating David Coyne 4–1 in the final.[4] 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.[3][5]

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.[6] 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.[7] This saw him enter the UK Open in the second round stage where he was defeated 5–2 by Joe Cullen.[8] 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.[9] 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.[10]

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.[11] Evans' successful debut season continued later in the month as he was a losing semi-finalist at the final Players Championship.[12] 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.[13][14] 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.[15]

He could not get beyond the last 128 in any of the six qualifiers for the 2014 UK Open, which resulted in his failure to qualify for the event.[16] 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.[17][18] 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.[19]

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.[20] 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.[21] 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.[22]

Evans won the qualifier for the 2016 World Championship with a 5–4 victory over Andy Boulton.[23] 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.[24] However, Evans lost 10 legs in a row in his second round match against Jamie Caven to be knocked out 4–0.[25] 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.[26] 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.[27] He also missed double 12 for a nine darter during the day, before losing 6–4 to Steve West in the last four.[28] These results have seen Evans qualify for the Players Championship Finals and he faced James Wade in the first round.[29]

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.[30] He reached the semi-finals of the first UK Open Qualifier, but lost 6–4 to Adrian Lewis.[31]

At the 2018 Dutch Darts Championship, Evans made his first PDC European Tour final, where he lost 8–5 to Ian White.[32]

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

[edit]

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.[33]

World Championship results

[edit]

PDC

[edit]

Performance timeline

[edit]
Tournament 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
PDC Ranked televised events
PDC World Championship BDO 2R DNQ 2R 1R DNQ 1R 3R 3R 2R 2R 3R
UK Open BDO 2R BDO 3R DNQ 3R 4R 3R 4R 4R 5R 5R 6R 4R SF
World Matchplay BDO DNQ 1R 1R DNQ
World Grand Prix BDO DNQ 1R 1R DNQ
European Championship BDO DNQ 2R QF DNQ
Grand Slam of Darts DNQ RR DNQ RR DNQ
Players Championship Finals BDO DNQ 1R DNQ 3R 2R 1R 1R 1R 1R
Non-ranked televised events
World Series of Darts Finals Not held DNQ 1R DNQ 2R DNP
PDC World Youth Championship NH DNP 2R F DNQ
BDO Ranked televised events
BDO World Championship DNQ Not a BDO player NH
Winmau World Masters 1R 3R 3R 2R 4R Not a BDO player NH PDC
Career statistics
Year-end ranking 549 (BDO) - - 562 (BDO) 1065 (BDO) 56 54 55 48 60 49 28 30 41 48 46

PDC European Tour

Season 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
2013 UKM
DNQ 		EDT
DNQ 		EDO
DNQ 		ADO
DNQ 		GDT
DNQ 		GDC
1R 		GDM
1R 		DDM
DNQ
2014 GDC
DNQ 		DDM
DNQ 		GDM
DNQ 		ADO
DNQ 		GDT
DNQ 		EDO
DNQ 		EDG
2R 		EDT
1R
2015 GDC
DNQ 		GDT
DNQ 		GDM
DNQ 		DDM
2R 		IDO
DNQ 		EDO
DNQ 		EDT
DNQ 		EDM
DNQ 		EDG
1R
2016 DDM
1R 		GDM
DNQ 		GDT
DNQ 		EDM
DNQ 		ADO
DNQ 		EDO
DNQ 		IDO
1R 		EDT
2R 		EDG
DNQ 		GDC
DNQ
2017 GDC
DNQ 		GDM
1R 		GDO
DNQ 		EDG
DNQ 		GDT
DNQ 		EDM
DNQ 		ADO
DNQ 		EDO
DNQ 		DDM
DNQ 		GDG
DNQ 		IDO
DNQ 		EDT
1R
2018 EDO
DNQ 		GDG
DNQ 		GDO
DNQ 		ADO
DNQ 		EDG
1R 		DDM
1R 		GDT
DNQ 		DDO
3R 		EDM
DNQ 		GDC
2R 		DDC
F 		IDO
DNQ 		EDT
2R
2019 EDO
DNQ 		GDC
F 		GDG
3R 		GDO
DNQ 		ADO
2R 		EDG
2R 		DDM
3R 		DDO
2R 		CDO
2R 		ADC
QF 		EDM
3R 		IDO
3R 		GDT
DNQ
2020 BDC
DNQ 		GDC
DNQ 		EDG
DNQ 		IDO
DNQ
2021 HDT
DNQ 		GDT
DNQ
2022 IDO
DNQ 		GDC
2R 		GDG
DNQ 		ADO
QF 		EDO
DNQ 		CDO
3R 		EDG
DNQ 		DDC
DNQ 		EDM
DNQ 		HDT
DNQ 		GDO
DNQ 		BDO
DNQ 		GDT
DNQ
2023 BSD
1R 		EDO
DNQ 		IDO
DNQ 		GDG
DNQ 		ADO
1R 		DDC
DNQ 		BDO
2R 		CDO
DNQ 		EDG
2R 		EDM
DNQ 		GDO
2R 		HDT
DNQ 		GDC
DNQ
2024 BDO
DNQ 		GDG
DNQ 		IDO
DNQ 		EDG
DNQ 		ADO
1R 		BSD
DNQ 		DDC
DNQ 		EDO
DNQ 		GDC
DNQ 		FDT
DNQ 		HDT
DNQ 		SDT
DNQ 		CDO
DNQ
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

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "PDC Order of Merit". PDPA. 31 October 2024. Retrieved 31 October 2024.
  2. ^ "BILD BREMEN: Darten Sie ein Leg gegen „The Rapid" Ricky Evans!". bild.de (in German). 10 August 2022. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
  3. ^ a b "Ricky Evans BDO Events". Darts Database. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  4. ^ "2011 PDC Youth Tour England Results". Darts Database. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  5. ^ "2012 World Masters Results". Darts Database. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  6. ^ "PDC Qualifying School Day One". PDC.tv. Professional Darts Corporation. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  7. ^ "Mighty Mike Completes Crawley Double". PDC. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  8. ^ "2013 UK Open Results". Darts Database. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  9. ^ "Van Gerwen's McCoy's Premier League Glory". PDC. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  10. ^ "2013 Grand Slam Of Darts Results". Darts Database. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  11. ^ "Maiden Triumph For Dolan". PDC. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  12. ^ "2013 PDPA Players Championship Barnsley Results". Darts Database. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  13. ^ "2013 ProTour Order of Merit". PDC. Archived from the original on 27 November 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  14. ^ "Ladbrokes World Championship Day Four". PDC. 16 December 2013.
  15. ^ "Order of Merit on 2 January 2014". PDC. Archived from the original on 2 January 2014. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
  16. ^ "Ricky Evans 2014". Darts Database. Archived from the original on 10 October 2014. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  17. ^ "European Darts Grand Prix Day Two". PDC. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  18. ^ "European Darts Trophy Day One". PDC. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  19. ^ "2014 PDPA Players Championship Coventry Results". Darts Database. Retrieved 4 December 2014.
  20. ^ "Mighty Mike Claims Wigan Win". PDC. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  21. ^ "Coral UK Open Third Round". PDC. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  22. ^ "2015 PDPA Players Championship Barnsley Results". Darts Database. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
  23. ^ "PDPA Qualifier Joy For Evans & Boulton". PDC. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
  24. ^ "William Hill World Championship Draw". PDC. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
  25. ^ "William Hill World Championship Day Eight". PDC. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  26. ^ "2016 Coral UK Open Fourth Round". PDC. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  27. ^ "Price Is Wright For Gerwyn in Barnsley". PDC. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
  28. ^ "Nine-Dart van Gerwen Completes Barnsley Treble!". PDC. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
  29. ^ "2016 Players Championship Finals Fixtures". Darts Database. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
  30. ^ "William Hill World Championship Day One". PDC. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
  31. ^ "UK Open Qualifier 1". PDC. 3 February 2017. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  32. ^ "Emotional White Lifts First Euro Title".
  33. ^ "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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