Adams relishing Hankey clash

Martin Adams believes darts fans are in for a treat when he meets former title-holder Ted Hankey in the quarter-finals of the Lakeside World Championship.

The 48-year-old from Peterborough staged a second-successive stirring comeback to beat Scotland’s John Henderson having also been on the brink of defeat against another qualifier, Davy Richardson, in his first match.

In what is without doubt a darting season of terrific fightbacks, both at this tournament in Frimley Green and the rival event in Purfleet, Hankey also recovered from an unenviable position to oust Robert Wagner.

But it is not so much the nature of their matches this week that convinces Adams his clash with Hankey will be one to savour, more the history of the encounters between the duo.

“It should be good fun against Ted,” said Adams, who has just notched up 10 years as England captain.

“We have never had a bad game. What I can predict for Friday night is that it will definitely be a good match.

“It’s the best of nine sets rather than five and the longer format tends to suit the more experienced players. We don’t like the short races.”

Adams had to call on all his years of experience to avoid a shock defeat against Henderson, who set a new championship record of 12 maximum scores of 180 in a five-set match.

“John was superb on the treble 20 and it’s very hard to follow darts like that,” said the seventh seed.

“But I’ve been playing at the Lakeside for 12 years and what I’ve learned is that you must not panic. If you keep playing your game it can suddenly click and you can win leg after leg.

“John will be back, there’s no doubt about that. He will have learned a lot from this.”

While Adams and Hankey have survived tight battles there was no such luck for their England colleague and third seed Mervyn King, who lost 3-2 to surprise Dutch package Andre Brantjes.

Making his first appearance at the Lakeside, 46-year-old Brantjes has now taken two major scalps having also ousted his compatriot Co Stompe in the first round.

“When you start playing darts the question is where you want to play and that has to be the Lakeside,” said former world soft-tip darts champion Brantjes, who was continuing an excellent championship for his country.

“To come here and play on television and in front of such a great audience brings so much joy.

“I had no nerves during the match – only afterwards. All I was thinking about was throwing my darts. I didn’t even know the score – I just kept throwing and waited to see who the referee said had won at the end.”

In the quarter-finals he will meet another overseas debutant, Australia’s Simon Whitlock, who lived up to his nickname of ’The Wizard’ by overcoming Marko Kantele of Finland with a comfortable 3-1 success.

Tonight sees the opening two quarter-final clashes, with an all-Dutch affair between three-time champion Raymond van Barneveld and Vincent van der Voort followed by fifth seed Darryl Fitton against Robert Thornton.