Ted Hankey’s most difficult opponent is often himself, but he overcame his demons and held his nerve to win the BDO World Championships final last night.

The Dracula of darts tore into his opponent, but he could not kill off the challenge of Tony O’Shea until taking the deciding set for a 7-6 victory.

A year ago, Hankey’s exit from the competition was marked by punching the board and threatening to quit the sport when the crowd heckled him. This time “The Count” snarled and sneered, but the secret to his success has been keeping control of his anger.

Hankey missed his chance for the title eight times, but he then threw double ten to secure the £95,000 first prize, nine years after he lifted his first title at the Lakeside Country Club, in Frimley Green, Surrey.

His triumph, helped by 15 maximum scores, was greeted with a cigarette and a pint. “I thought I had blown it, but it means more to me winning this the second time,” Hankey said. “I talked myself out of many doubles and before the start of the last set, I said to myself, ‘I am not going to win it.’ ”

Hankey, 40, has also made changes to his preparation and now goes on to the oche with only three pints of beer inside him, down from his usual 13.

His obsession with Dracula began when he played the part in a school play and he arrived on stage draped in a swirling black cape and throwing small plastic toy bats to the crowd. But it was O’Shea, surprisingly, who drew first blood in taking the opening set against the darts. He leapt into an early lead in the second set, but a perspiring Hankey wiped the sweat from his brow and reeled off five consecutive legs to establish a platform for a 2-1 lead.

Hankey swept to the fourth set, helped by a 111 check-out and double ten, and he should have taken the fifth set when he led with a break of darts. O’Shea, nicknamed “The Silverback”, took his chance and roared back to reduce the deficit to 3-2, shaking his clenched fists to the crowd.

The next four sets were shared, but O’Shea scuppered his chances in the tenth set, when he hit 13 when attempting double four, and Hankey sped into a 6-4 lead.

Throwing for the title, Hankey miscued his darts on a 62 finish and O’Shea stole the set to trail 6-5. Hankey was out of sight in the next set, missed six darts for the title and O’Shea held his nerve to throw double six to take the match, remarkably, into a deciding set.

The opening three legs of the final set went against the darts, but Hankey punished a low score from his opponent and claimed victory on his ninth attempt, leaving O’Shea out for the count.

“I was really a bag of nerves, but reaching the final was just ‘wow’,” O’Shea said.

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