Evans' hopes ended by Wade in last 16

Kettering darts star Ricky Evans, complete with his 'Baby Shark' walk-on music' reached the last 16 of the Unibet European Championship. Picture courtesy of Kelly Deckers/PDC

The Kettering darts star, who brought the house down once again with his use of ‘Baby Shark’ for his walk-on music at the Westfalenhalle in Dortmund, enjoyed a fine 6-4 success over world number five Daryl Gurney in the first round.

Evans did it the hard way in front of the live ITV4 cameras as he Gurney landed back-to-back 14-darters to take leads of 3-1 and 4-2 at one stage.

But ‘Rapid’ hit back in the seventh and broke throw to level, before punishing missed doubles from Gurney in the next two to seal his second-round place.

However, his hopes were ended at the next stage as he was beaten 10-5 by James Wade.

After Evans broke in the opening leg, Wade reeled off seven in a row, including four 14-dart finishes, as he took command of the tie.

Evans landed a 106 finish amongst back-to-back legs as he got back to 8-5, but Wade sealed victory in brilliant fashion by completing a pair of 12-darters with checkouts of 130 and 121.

It’s been a fine year for Evans on the ProTour and it’s not over yet as he has qualified for both the Players Championship Finals in Minehead at the end of next month and the William Hill World Championship, which gets under way at the Alexandra Palace in London in December.