MARDLE SLAMS EVANS FOR UNPROFESSIONAL BEHAVIOR

WAYNE MARDLE says Ricky Evans was “unprofessional” after his World Championship loss to Charlie Manby.

World NO40 Evans entertained the crowd by walking on to ‘Like a Prayer’ by Madonna with green pom-poms.

But ‘Rapid’ was defeated 4-2 by Manby in the third round at Ally Pally, with his focus and concentration slipping as the match progressed.

Former pro Mardle was critical of the Kettering thrower’s attitude towards the latter stages of the game.

He said: “Look, Charlie’s one of these kids, and they’re all kids to me.

“He’s 20, he is a kid, but he’s learning very, very quickly and where I was most impressed with him is that he was missing and missing and missing.

“We were getting frustrated watching him, but he was keeping it all in check.

“But what has to be said is that Ricky Evans, at the end, it was just unprofessional.

“You don’t give up like that and he gave up. He won’t sleep well after reacting the way he did. You just can’t do it.

“But Charlie, when Ricky was kind of giving up, he just kept his head down, marched on. It’s like: This is none of my concern.

“That for a 20-year-old with such little experience on the world stage was testament to him and his belief and obviously the people around him have literally said: Charlie, just get on with it, pal. Do what you have to do.

“But yeah, Ricky will not sleep. He will not like how he reacted to that.”

Evans has failed to get past the last 32 in ELEVEN appearances at the major tournament.

Manby noted after the match that he could see a shift in his opponent’s demeanor as he started racking up leg wins and closing in on victory.

He added: “I like Ricky, he’s good, but you can see it changing more or less as soon as I went in front.

“I got ahead of him and scoring power was always there all game and I just knew if my doubles went, then I’d come out on the right side.”

Manby will return to action on December 30, where he’ll face Gian van Veen for a place in the quarter-finals on his debut.

Image by Taylor Lanning.