Hankey cruises through at the Lakeside

Second seed Ted Hankey produced a thoroughly professional display tonight against sole American contender John Kuczynski to reach the second round of the Lakeside World Championship in Frimley Green.

The 36-year-old, who took the title in 2000, won 3-0 thanks to some impressively high scoring and accuracy on the doubles.

'The Count', whose nickname originates from his likeness to Dracula, arrived on stage in trademark fashion, clad in a black cape and tossing plastic bats into the audience.

And the star attraction of the evening session lived up to his billing as he never looked in any danger of defeat against the 31-year-old qualifier from Pennsylvania.

"I'm happy because I played well but I can do better,"  said Telford-based Hankey, who meets Norway's Robert Wagner in the second round on Tuesday.

Every player hates the first round and it's always good to get it over with so you can relax and prepare again. I'm confident and I'm looking forward to the rest of the tournament.

His next opponent Wagner staged one of three tremendous fightbacks in the afternoon session, triumphing 3-2 against Finland's Jarkko Komula in an all-Scandinavian tussle.

Two seeds also got out of jail as Tony West came through 3-2 against Holland's Rick Hofstra, while Martin Adams battled back to beat Davy Richardson by the same scoreline.

Hofstra, 27, squandered four match darts as nerves appeared to get the better of him even though he had knocked his compatriot and world number one Raymond van Barneveld out of the Winmau World Masters in October.

West was determined to avoid a repeat of his first-round exit here 12 months ago when he lost to eventual champion Andy Fordham, and the fourth seed from Essex capitalised on his opponent's tension to sneak through.

Adams, 48, from Peterborough, who has just notched up 10 years as England captain, was out-played by Gateshead engineer Richardson early on but hung in and after levelling the match, took the decider 4-2.

"I just told myself to keep going and that something might happen, and it did,"  said British Open champion Adams, a former Lakeside semi-finalist.

Meanwhile, Scottish qualifiers won the last two matches of the night without dropping set.

John Henderson ended the chances of Merseyside teenager Stephen Bunting, while Robert Thornton caused a minor upset by ousting World Masters quarter-finalist Martin Atkins.