Darts: Hankey celebrates magical comeback

Gavin Worley
Wednesday 05 January 2005 01:00 GMT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Ted Hankey pulled off an epic comeback victory over the Norwegian Robert Wagner to advance to the quarter-finals of the BDO World Championship.

The former champion Hankey could not bear to watch as he went down 2-0 to "The Magician", and was playing without his usual swagger. However, "The Count" rediscovered his touch and showed real character to fight back and take the third set, and then held his nerve to level the match at 2-2.

The second seed, who won the tournament in 2000, went into the deciding set with all the momentum, and in the end overpowered Wagner to close out a dramatic win.

Robert Thornton pulled off the shock of the second round with a comprehensive 3-0 win over the fourth seed, Tony West.

The Scot was making his debut at Frimley Green and had never before competed in a major tournament. He will now meet England's Darryl Fitton in the last eight after the fifth seed cruised past his compatriot John Walton, the 2001 champion.

In the women's final, Trina Gulliver won her fifth-successive world title with a 2-0 victory over Dutch opponent Francis Hoenselaar. Gulliver dropped only one leg of the final against her old rival.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in