Manby admits life on PDC circuit can be "disheartening" in debut season

CHARLIE MANBY admits life on the PDC circuit can be "disheartening" at times in his debut season as a Tour Card holder.

The world No83 has reached the quarter-finals of Players Championship events seven and eight this season as he continues to make his mark on the floor.

Manby, 20, has shown he can thrive under the bright lights after reaching the fourth round of the UK Open earlier this campaign before falling to a 10-6 defeat against Ryan Joyce.

Champagne Charlie also enjoyed a brilliant run at last year's World Championship on his Alexandra Palace debut as he reached the fourth round before losing 4-1 to Gian van Veen.

But the Huddersfield thrower admits the gruelling demands of the ProTour have provided a different challenge to anything he has experienced before.

He told the Tops and Tales podcast: “I am enjoying it. I think I have done alright as far as new Tour Card holders this year.

“How many new card holders are there this year? 20-odd. I am fourth best. I have a lot of time left.

“I want to do this for a number of years. It is not just retaining my Tour Card. I want to climb up the rankings and get into the majors.

“I have dealt with it alright because it is hard at times.

“The difficult thing is you can play first game and average 107 and lose in the first round.

“But then you can also average 92 all day and get into the final. It is disheartening when you are losing games but are playing well.

“It does work both ways if you are playing not so good and picking up wins.

“It’s just a bit disheartening knowing you are playing very well and can’t get over the line and not going up the rankings, earning any money.

“That is the hardest thing.”

Manby also admits the relentless travel involved in life on the PDC circuit has been one of the biggest adjustments to make in his early career.

He added: “When it all comes at once, I think February at the start of the year was just hectic for me.

“I think I went to Germany for the first ProTours and came back, flew into Heathrow, went straight to an exhibition in Great Yarmouth.

“Then we went straight from there to Wigan and it was a long drive. Then I might have had a day or two at home, then gone to Leicester.

“It was a week in Leicester because I had the Dev Tours followed on from the ProTours.

“It was a good three weeks of just constant darts. The days off you would have, you would be travelling.

“That was the first one I thought, Jesus, this is hard work.

“But only because it was the travelling here and there from one place to the other. You always felt like you were in a car or the plane or train station.

“Even when you are sat on a train, it is not hard work but it feels it. You feel like you’re knackered. I have travelled so far.

“But you have been sat on a train for three hours doing nowt.”

Words: Aaron Nijjar