Shropshire darter Ted ‘The Count’ Hankey has crashed out of the Grand Slam of Darts at Wolverhampton.
The BDO world champion and No 2 seed was the highest profile casualty of the round-robin stages which completed last night.
Telford’s Hankey needed to beat Australian Simon Whitlock by a margin of 5-2 or better to keep alive his hopes in the tournament, and looked on course to do that when he led 3-0 and 4-1.
But he missed one dart for a 5-2 victory and Whitlock battled back, checking out 146 in the deciding leg to secure a 5-4 victory.
“When I was 3-0 up I thought I had him, but Simon played great darts to come back,” said Hankey.
“I had that one chance to win it when I missed double top but he was superb and that 146 finish was sensational.”
It meant Hankey won one and lost two of his three round-robin matches in a week where he was involved in a war of words with spectators at the Civic Hall.
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