Evans fades after promising start as worlds dream ends with defeat to Manby at Ally Pally

It is the seventh time Evans has now lost at the last 32 stage of the PDC World Championship.

He looked to be on course for an appearance in the last 16 for the first time as he started pretty well and opened up a 2-1 set lead over his 20-year-old opponent, who is making his debut tournament appearance.

The Kettering player had taken full advantage of some wayward Manby finishing to get himself in front, but he missed opportunities to increase his lead to 3-1, with Manby hitting back and finding his range on the doubles to make it 2-2 at the break.

From then on in Manby took control, and with Evans visibly struggling to keep himself and his game together, the Yorkshireman rattled off wins in nine of what were to be the final 12 legs, and five in a row at the death, to seal an impressive victory.

It had all looked to promising as Evans, who took to the stage to the sounds of Madonna’s Like A Prayer, and then brought a smile to everyone’s face inside Ally Pally as he grabbed a pair of green pom poms to join in with the pre-match dancers on stage.

When play started, Evans took advantage of some terrible finishing by Manby to claim the first set 3-1.

Manby missed a host of doubles, wasting nine chances to finish out of 10, while a more clinical Evans, who was some way off playing his best darts, hit three out of seven to ensure he claimed the opener.

Manby continued to miss plenty of opportunities in the second set, but his power scoring was keeping him in the game, and he eventually found his range to tie up the match at 1-1 in sets, claiming the second 3-2.

The third set was a more straightforward for Evans, who was in control after nailing a 134 finish to go ahead after another couple of fluffed double attempts from Manby, and he rounded off the set 3-0 in legs to take a 2-1 lead.

The opportunity was then there for Evans to take a 3-1 lead into the mid point break and the Kettering man had his chances to do so.

But with Manby beginning to hit the doubles, it was Evans' throwing that started to wobble under the pressure and he closed out the set 3-2 to win and make it 2-2 in sets.

The momentum was now with the Huddersfield man, and despite both players winning legs against the throw to make it 1-1 in the fifth, Manby broke Evans' throw again to lead 2-1 and from then on it was all about the 20-year-old as Evans' game disinitegrated.

Manby wrapped up the set to go 3-2 ahead, and in the sixth set it was one-way traffic as an increasingly erratic Evans collapsed to once again fall at the last 32 stage.

Evans was growing ever more frustrated and, as he struggled to hit any sort of treble or score, his emotions increasingly got the better of him as his chance of victory raced away at an alarming rate.

With Manby sorting out his finishing and hitting doubles on a regular basis, he stormed home as he won nine of what proved to be the final 12 legs, winning the sixth set 3-0, to seal the victory and send Evans packing.

It was a painful watch for any Evans supporter as he ended the match with a three-dart average of 83.34, having made six 180s compared to Manby's 11, with the latter also scoring 30 100-plus scores, dwarfing Evans' 17.

Evans' checkout percentage of 42.31 was much better than his opponent, with Manby missing 41 of 54 double chances, but in the final three sets he simply never scored well enough to give himself a chance.

Evans' on-stage demeanour was hard to watch in the final set in particular as he looked like the world was against him, and Manby admitted: "Ricky's a funny character, I like him.

"You could see it changing more or less straight away when I went ahead. My scoring power was there all game so I knew if my doubles went I'd get the win."

Manby now goes on to play fellow youngster Gian van Veen for a place in the last eight.

As for Evans, he at least has the consolation of taking home £35,000 prize money for reaching the third round.