"I decided to do karaoke for about six hours": Ricky Evans' voice diminished after wild stag do with comparisons to EastEnders character

Ricky Evans has booked his place in the second round of the Belgian Darts Open. The 35-year-old Englishman defeated his compatriot Scott Williams in the opening round and will now face Ryan Searle.

The interview with Ricky Evans at the Belgian Darts Open didn’t start with a question about his stage performance, but with something immediately noticeable: his voice. ‘Rapid Ricky’ sounded strikingly hoarse, and that didn’t go unmentioned. What followed was a candid and, above all, humorous story that showed a different side of the flamboyant thrower.

“I can tell you exactly what it was. I went to a stag do last week before Göttingen, and I sang too much karaoke.”

The cause didn’t lie in illness or a cold, but in a night that got out of hand—or rather, an entire day—of karaoke. Just before the tournament in Göttingen, Evans had attended a stag do, and things escalated there.

“And this wasn’t alcohol-related or anything like that—because the day I did it, it was all karaoke. A load of friends of mine love the races, but instead of watching the racing, I decided to do karaoke for about six hours.”

The result was predictable: a completely overworked voice that still hadn’t recovered days later.

The interviewer couldn’t resist pressing the point. If Evans still sounded like this a week later, the karaoke session itself must have been pretty intense. “You can hear my voice now and it’s rubbish—imagine this singing!”

Still, he looks back on the outing with pleasure. “No, I loved it. I enjoyed it, I loved the people I was with, and I took the day off because of Göttingen.”

Although the party clearly left its mark, Evans did try to switch back to something resembling professionalism afterward. “On the Wednesday in Benidorm last week, we had a it's so unprofessional to say we had a ‘lemonade day’. I did, personally, because I knew I had to fly to Amsterdam and then to Hannover.”

He did admit that the days before were anything but quiet. “But yeah, Monday and Tuesday we hit it hard and had a lot of karaoke.”

The consequences are now clearly audible. Evans’s voice even drew comparisons with well-known TV characters, something he visibly enjoyed. “And this is the reason why I sound like Beppe from EastEnders.”

The interviewer piled on with another comparison Louis Armstrong but he is letting his darts do the talking over his actual voice.