Manby traded cricket whites for tungsten in rapid rise

CHARLIE MANBY swapped the crease for the oche as he traded his cricket whites for a career in professional darts.

The world No83 spent his Saturdays bowling for Clayton West CC before securing his PDC Tour Card at Q-School earlier this year.

Manby, 20, has gone viral on TikTok after footage emerged of him smashing the stumps out of the ground with his high-pace deliveries.

Champagne Charlie grew up around the sport in West Yorkshire and says it remains a huge part of the local area.

But Manby insists his cricket career was never anything more than a bit of fun with his mates.

He told the Tops and Tales podcast: “It’s very big. More or less every village you go to has got a cricket club and they’re all mad on it as well.

“It is a good little community that we’ve got in Huddersfield.

“I was never that good. It doesn’t really put it into perspective that it was a local league game, second-team cricket, bottom division.

“It was nothing special. But I just enjoyed playing with my mates. It was a good laugh on a Saturday.

“Some days you could be in the field for three or four hours, so it can get boring. I was alright.

“But I was never good enough like the guys now to turn pro.

“I had a couple of hat-tricks and fivers bowling. I remember getting four wickets in a T20.

“I had two balls left, but I sneaked one off and the wicketkeeper dropped it. I had one ball left, but on that ball when he dropped it, he ran and got ran out.

“So I got four wickets and he got ran out when I had one ball left. So I was gutted.”

Manby has since shone under the bright lights of darts, reaching the fourth round of both the World Championship and UK Open.

The Huddersfield ace is still waiting to land his first title but has gone close, reaching the quarter-finals of two Players Championship events.

Words: Aaron Nijjar