• Born c 1830
• Died Unknown
• Educated
• Occupation
• Debut 3 September 1860 v All England XI at Rathmines
• Cap Number 49
• Style Batting hand unknown
• Teams Phoenix, R Dickerson's XI

Charles Manning is another of those early Irish players whose full biographical details have proved difficult to trace, beyond the fact of his marriage in 1859 and that he was for a short while Secretary of Phoenix CC. As the Club was then regarded as the premier one in Ireland, having a status equivalent to MCC In England, it is safe to assume that Charles was a man of some social standing. Any further information about him would be most gratefully received.

Charle's only match for Ireland came in September 1860 when the mighty All England XI, the first of the Professional XIs to be founded and probably the strongest, paid its first visit to Ireland. Its founder William Clarke, the one-eyed bricklayer who also founded Trent Bridge, was dead but it was led by "The Lion of The North" George Parr, a magnificent batsman - though he never did much in Ireland suffering from seasickness en route from Holyhead, and contained, probably, the two best bowlers in all cricket at the time, Edgar Willsher and Crispin Tinley. They destroyed Ireland's XXII twice with only Army officer - and future general- EA Berger making any real progress against them with a stylish first innings 21. Charles, regrettably, made a pair on his only appearance for the national side. Batting at No 15, he was yorked by one of Willsher's fast left arm slinging deliveries in his first innings and, promoted to open the batting with egocentric academic JP Mahaffy in the second, run out in the second. The visitors recorded a 7 wickets victory.

Two summers later found Charles in London playing for a side termed R Dickerson's XI against the powerful Southgate Club, which fielded three of the famous Walker brothers on their own ground. The XI, in fact a XXII, managed to head the hosts on the first innings, thanks to a fast bowler called Ford, and escaped with a draw. Charles made a useful 9 in the middle order in the first innings, there were only three double figure score. He fell to a Walker combination caught by Edward off the slow left arm of Russell.

Charles' final match of which a score has been seen was for Phoenix v Civil Service the following year. This was not a local derby of the Parks rivals, the visitors being the London club side of that name, containing several players of first class experience. The hosts who included 7 Irish internationals won the match by 7 wickets. Charles batted at 11, making 4, and did not bowl, but held a catch.

I am grateful to David Penney for his help in unearthing some of Manning's details.