Whitlock.
Through a combination of slowing down the pace of the game, excessive
in your face celebrations and some fantastic darts Hankey fought back,
forcing a deciding leg as the Civic Hall crowd looked on in awe.
In a nervy leg two tons from Hankey were enough to see ‘The Count’
progress, leaving a shell shocked Whitlock to reflect on what might
have been.
Photo: PDC/Lawrence Lustig
“I can’t believe that I won that game,” admitted an emotional Hankey
afterwards.”I felt so good before I went on stage and all of a sudden I
was 6-1 down.”
“Simon played brilliantly but I knew I could play better. I was pathetic
in the first session and to be honest I started telling myself off - I took
my aggression out on myself and I got so wound up that I found a place
that I went into, and I was alright then.”
“All of a sudden I found myself 8-7 up and I just had to hold my throw,
and I thought that my finishing in the second half of the game was
great. In the final leg I had the throw and against a great player like
Simon you’d expect to lose it, but he didn’t seem to hit anything and
the 58 was two of the biggest darts I’ve ever thrown.”
“I can’t believe
that I won that
game”
Ted Hankey
“For once in my life I wanted to hit the big 18 and see tops go in with
the first dart, and I did it.”
“It’s been a rough 18 months for me but I know I can play the game and
I’m looking forward to the quarter-finals now - it’s like I’ve been given
a new lease of life and this can kick-start my career.”
If Wednesday had been a night for tense and close games, then Thursday
was the night that the 2013 Grand Slam of Darts exploded into life.
Adrian Lewis produced arguably the display of the tournament so far
as he averaged over 105 in a 10-8 victory over Michael van Gerwen.
The Stoke-based thrower twice hit six perfect darts, and landed 12
maximums, whilst van Gerwen too set up a nine-dart opportunity in a
high paced encounter that came close to matching the pairs epic battle
during this years World Matchplay.
Photo: PDC/Lawrence Lustig
“I was confident and I felt I could do a job tonight, and I did just that,”
said Lewis. “I’ve got a great rivalry going with Michael at the moment
and these games excite me, and we bring the best out of each other.”
“Early on in the game I was scoring brilliantly but I couldn’t hit a double
and Michael took his chances. I knuckled down and responded to his
11-darter with one of my own, and you have to do that against him
because if you give him a chance he takes it.”
Gary Anderson had looked back to his brilliant best all week, but even
this was not enough to stop a relentless Phil Taylor, the sixteen-time
World Champion fired in a 102 average as he secured a 10-5 victory
over Anderson whose stats looked more like those of a winner than a
loser.
“I loved every minute of that,” said Taylor. “When Gary scores like that
he’s brilliant, and the scoreline doesn’t show how good he was in this
match.”
“I was confident
and I felt I could
do a job tonight,
and I did just that”
Adrian Lewis