Darts sensation Charlie Manby emerges as top talent in completely different sport

Darts star Charlie Manby can do it all.

If reaching the last 16 of his first ever World Darts Championships isn’t enough, it now appears the 20-year-old is a dab hand at cricket.

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‘Champagne Charlie’s’ secret passion was revealed by Yorkshire County Cricket Club on Tuesday in a social media post dedicated to the star.

A man of many talents

Ahead of Manby’s fourth round match against Dutch youngster Gian van Veen on Tuesday, Yorkshire posted a video of Manby showing off his talent with a cricket ball.

The clip showed the Huddersfield bricklayer taking a succession of wickets for his club Clayton West along with his darts walk-on theme ‘Champagne Supernova’ by Oasis.

The post read: “Champagne Charlie is pretty handy at cricket too. Congratulations to Clayton West CC’s Charlie Manby on reaching the last 16 on his #WCDarts debut.

“Good luck tomorrow, Charlie!”

At least if it doesn’t work out at the oche then he always has cricket to fall back on if he wishes.

But considering the way his World Championships are going, there is little doubt that Manby has a huge future in darts.

He booked his spot in the last 16 on Monday after edging out Ricky Evans 4-2 to set up a meeting with European champion Van Veen.

Dealing with adversity

He was able to overcome some early problems with his doubles against Evans, landing just four of his first 30 attempts.

“It was frustrating. I should have taken the first set, simple as that,” Manby said.

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“I missed doubles, but at first to four there is a lot of time, so I think I recovered well and got my confidence back.”

Meanwhile, Van Veen made light work of Latvia’s Madars Razma on Sunday, winning 4-1 and Manby paid tribute to Tuesday’s opponent.

“I like Gian, I like the way he plays, quick and young player,” he added.

“He’s doing well but so am I. I’m just waiting for my A-game to come. I’ll be here all the time if my A-game comes.”

Manby is now guaranteed a whopping £60,000 in prize money for reaching the last 16 and it could become even more lucrative should he reach Thursday’s quarter-final stage.

Meanwhile, Justin Hood advanced to round four with victory over Ryan Meikle as did Kevein Doets who beat Nathan Aspinall 4-3.

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Luke Littler booked his spot in the quarter-finals with a hard-fought 4-2 win over Rob Cross and Ryan Searle eased past James Hurrell 4-0.

The remainder of the round four action concludes on Tuesday before the tournament takes a two day break.

The quarter-finals commence on Thursday, the semi-finals on Friday with the final taking place on Saturday night.