Ricky Evans (darts player)
| Ricky Evans | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Evans in 2023 | |||||||
| Personal information | |||||||
| Nickname | "Rapid" | ||||||
| Born | 29 July 1990 Kettering, Northamptonshire, England | ||||||
| Home town | Kettering, Northamptonshire, England | ||||||
| Darts information | |||||||
| Playing darts since | 2005 | ||||||
| Darts | Bulls 19g | ||||||
| Laterality | Right-handed | ||||||
| Walk-on music | Merry Christmas Everyone by Shakin' Stevens (PDC World Championship) "YMCA" by Village People (Other events) | ||||||
| Organisation (see split in darts) | |||||||
| BDO | 2007–2013 | ||||||
| PDC | 2013– (Tour Card: 2013–) | ||||||
| Current world ranking | 45  (24 November 2024)[1] | ||||||
| WDF major events – best performances | |||||||
| World Masters | Last 48: 2012 | ||||||
| PDC premier events – best performances | |||||||
| World Ch'ship | Last 32: 2014, 2016, 2020, 2021, 2024 | ||||||
| World Matchplay | Last 32: 2019, 2020 | ||||||
| World Grand Prix | Last 32: 2018, 2019 | ||||||
| UK Open | Semi Final: 2024 | ||||||
| Grand Slam | Group Stage: 2013, 2020 | ||||||
| European Ch'ship | Quarter Final: 2019 | ||||||
| PC Finals | Last 16: 2018 | ||||||
| World Series Finals | Last 24: 2019 | ||||||
| Other tournament wins | |||||||
| |||||||
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]- 2014: Second round (lost to Mervyn King 2–4)
- 2016: Second round (lost to Jamie Caven 0–4)
- 2017: First round (lost to Michael Smith 2–3)
- 2019: First round (lost to Rowby-John Rodriguez 1–3)
- 2020: Third round (lost to Michael van Gerwen 0–4)
- 2021: Third round (lost to Michael van Gerwen 0–4)
- 2022: Second round (lost to Daryl Gurney 1–3)
- 2023: Second round (lost to Joe Cullen 1–3)
- 2024: Third round (lost to Daryl Gurney 2–4)
- 2025: Ongoing
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 | 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 | DNP | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 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 |
Key
| Performance Table Legend | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| W | Won the tournament | F | Finalist | SF | Semifinalist | QF | Quarterfinalist | #R RR Prel. |
Lost in # round Round-robin Preliminary round |
DQ | Disqualified |
| DNQ | Did not qualify | DNP | Did not participate | WD | Withdrew | NH | Tournament not held | NYF | Not yet founded | ||
References
[edit]- ^ "PDC Order of Merit". PDPA. 24 November 2024. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
- ^ "BILD BREMEN: Darten Sie ein Leg gegen „The Rapid" Ricky Evans!". bild.de (in German). 10 August 2022. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
- ^ a b "Ricky Evans BDO Events". Darts Database. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
- ^ "2011 PDC Youth Tour England Results". Darts Database. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
- ^ "2012 World Masters Results". Darts Database. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
- ^ "PDC Qualifying School Day One". PDC.tv. Professional Darts Corporation. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
- ^ "Mighty Mike Completes Crawley Double". PDC. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
- ^ "2013 UK Open Results". Darts Database. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
- ^ "Van Gerwen's McCoy's Premier League Glory". PDC. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
- ^ "2013 Grand Slam Of Darts Results". Darts Database. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
- ^ "Maiden Triumph For Dolan". PDC. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
- ^ "2013 PDPA Players Championship Barnsley Results". Darts Database. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
- ^ "2013 ProTour Order of Merit". PDC. Archived from the original on 27 November 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
- ^ "Ladbrokes World Championship Day Four". PDC. 16 December 2013.
- ^ "Order of Merit on 2 January 2014". PDC. Archived from the original on 2 January 2014. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
- ^ "Ricky Evans 2014". Darts Database. Archived from the original on 10 October 2014. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
- ^ "European Darts Grand Prix Day Two". PDC. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
- ^ "European Darts Trophy Day One". PDC. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
- ^ "2014 PDPA Players Championship Coventry Results". Darts Database. Retrieved 4 December 2014.
- ^ "Mighty Mike Claims Wigan Win". PDC. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
- ^ "Coral UK Open Third Round". PDC. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
- ^ "2015 PDPA Players Championship Barnsley Results". Darts Database. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
- ^ "PDPA Qualifier Joy For Evans & Boulton". PDC. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
- ^ "William Hill World Championship Draw". PDC. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
- ^ "William Hill World Championship Day Eight". PDC. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
- ^ "2016 Coral UK Open Fourth Round". PDC. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
- ^ "Price Is Wright For Gerwyn in Barnsley". PDC. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
- ^ "Nine-Dart van Gerwen Completes Barnsley Treble!". PDC. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
- ^ "2016 Players Championship Finals Fixtures". Darts Database. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
- ^ "William Hill World Championship Day One". PDC. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
- ^ "UK Open Qualifier 1". PDC. 3 February 2017. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
- ^ "Emotional White Lifts First Euro Title".
- ^ "Ricky Evans struck a maximum 180 in just 2.16 seconds at the World Darts Championship". Sky Sports. Retrieved 1 January 2017.