Kettering’s Ricky Evans holds nerve to progress in World Darts Championship
Kettering's Ricky Evans produced a display of clinical finishing to edge into the second round of the Paddy Power World Darts Championships in London on Wednesday night.
'Rapid', who lit up Alexandra Palace with his traditional Christmas walk-on, was far from at his best with his overall play, but produced the goods when it mattered to see off Australian Gordon Mathers 3-2.
Mathers performed well and recovered from 1-0 and 2-1 deficits to force a deciding set, but he was unable to claim an elusive first win on the WDC stage, as Evans sealed his progress with a clinical 109 checkout.
It was Evans' accuracy on the closing doubles that proved to be the difference between the players, with the Kettering man's checkout percentage (45.5%) far superior to Mathers' (26.5%).
Evans' three-dart average of 86.23 was lower that Mathers' 87.57, but he did enough to win the match and set up a third-round date with Dave Chisnall on Monday night (Dec 23).
“I’m going to have to play a lot better than that against Dave, but it still might not be enough,” conceded Evans, who has made the second round for a sixth consecutive year.
“Dave is one of my favourite players to watch, and one of my favourite players on tour, but you have to forget that.
“You need to focus on yourself. You want to ruin their Christmas, because if not, they’re going to ruin yours!”
Evans certainly got the crowd at 'Ally Pally' in the festive mood, as he walked on to Shakin Stevens' Merry Christmas Everyone, donning his special Christmas match shirt, carrying an inflatable elf and wearing Christmas teddy glasses!!
He was clearly frustrated by aspects of his performance, admonishing himself regularly on stage as he failed to find his top form, but he was just happy to progress and wrote on X: "So, so pleased to be through to round two!
"I was far from my best, and GG pushed me all the way, so I'm over the moon to still be in the tournament.
"Thank you so much for the support, hope you all enjoyed the walk on!"
Evans' match with Chisnall is scheduled to be the penultimate match of Monday's evening session (9.15pm), meaning it is the second last match before the tournament's Christmas break.
'Rapid' will be hoping he will be heading back to London to play in the last 32 when the action resumes from December 27.