Kettering's 'Rapid' Ricky Evans races into the second round

Kettering's Ricky Evans will be in action again at the PDC World Darts Championship this afternoon (Thursday) after a fine first-round success. Picture courtesy of Lawrence Lustig/PDC

‘Rapid’ Ricky Evans wasted no time in booking himself a place in the second round of the Williams Hill PDC World Championship last night (Wednesday).

It took the Kettering darts star just over 20 minutes to ease to a 3-0 success over Indian qualifier Nitin Kumar at the Alexandra Palace.

Evans will be straight back into action when he plays two-time quarter-finalist Daryl Gurney in the final match of today’s afternoon session.

Evans dropped just two legs in the match as he fired in four 180s while clinching the first set with a brilliant 167 checkout before wrapping up victory with a 130 finish.

The Kettering man dedicated his win to his sister Elisha and was delighted to get through.

He said: “Everyone who knows me, knows my sister and she’s been in hospital again and I would like to dedicate that to her. I want to thank her, she’s my practice partner. She’d still say I was rubbish!

“I am very happy. The finishing was good, I enjoyed every bit of that.

“The crowd were great, it’s good to have them back and it was nice to have a couple of friends and my dad there.

“Daryl is amazing and whoever wins that game could do some damage. Everyone in this tournament can play good darts.

“I was probably not fancied to do anything in this but I have a shot at it and I am going to enjoy every single minute of it.

“I feel like I am in the tournament now. I have to keep doing what I am doing. I have had a bad year but this stage seems to bring something out of me.”