Darts: Hankey stays calm to resist challenge of teenager Bunting
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Your support makes all the difference.Ted Hankey cruised into the quarter-finals of the Lakeside BDO World Darts Championship with an emphatic victory over the talented teenager Stephen Bunting here last night.
Bunting, an 18-year-old student from Liverpool, had clinched his place in the second round with an impressive 3-2 win over the Dutchman Vincent van der Voorst. However, "The Count", a favourite of the crowd, was a different proposition and had little trouble in registering a 3-0 win.
Bunting made a fast start and broke Hankey in the opening leg, finishing with double 20. But the 2000 champion, who needed just 46 minutes to demolish Ronnie Baxter 6-0 in the final four years ago, reeled off the next three legs to take the opening set.
The second set was a tighter affair and Bunting missed attempts at double eight and double four to clinch it in the fifth leg. Hankey had been thrown a lifeline and he took it with double 16.
Bunting responded by taking the first leg of the third set, but Hankey brought his experience to bear and closed out the match.
"I played at a normal pace tonight," Hankey said. "But when Stephen came back at me, I started to let them go. If I played at the pace I do in practice then the match would be over in 10 minutes, so I have to pace myself on stage. That's why I have my manager behind me to calm me down in matches.
"But I can guarantee that whoever wins next [between Tony O'Shea and Gary Robson] will not want to play me."
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