Edward Hankey (born 20 February 1968) is an English former professional darts player and convicted sex offender. Nicknamed "The Count", he won the BDO World Darts Championship in 2000 and 2009 and was runner-up in 2001.
He moved to the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) in 2012 but suffered a mini-stroke while playing Michael van Gerwen at the 2012 Grand Slam of Darts and took three months away from the sport to recuperate. He lost his PDC tour card in 2014, when he was 94th on the PDC Order of Merit, and returned to the BDO, where he failed to impress in the latter years of his playing career. He made his last appearance at the BDO World Darts Championship in 2016, losing 3–0 in the first round.
Hankey struggled financially in his later career and was declared bankrupt in 2018. In September 2021, he sexually assaulted a girl who was aged over 16 but under 18 at the time. After pleading guilty, he was sentenced in May 2022 to two years in prison and placed on the sex offender registry for ten years.
Darts career
BDO career
In the 2000 BDO World Darts Championship, after beating Bob Taylor, Steve Douglas, Kevin Painter and Chris Mason, Hankey whitewashed Ronnie Baxter 6–0 in the final, winning the match with a spectacular 170 checkout – the highest three-dart finish achievable.
Hankey won his first round match of the 2008 BDO World Championship over Steve West 3–2. After the match Hankey announced he did not plan on returning to Lakeside the following year and would instead join the BDO's rival organisation, the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC).
Return to PDC
The day after Hankey's announcement that he was leaving the BDO, the PDC announced on its website that it was offering two-year tour cards to the 2012 BDO World Darts Championship semi-finalists. This meant that Hankey automatically received a tour card to play in the PDC and its Pro Tour, rather than having to play through the qualifying school tournament (usually a requirement to all new PDC players). His first event on the tour was the opening Players Championship of 2012, The Spanish Darts Trophy, where he lost 4–6 to Matthew Edgar in the preliminary round. Hankey then won his first matches in the PDC by defeating Steve West 6–5 and Toon Greebe 6–1 in the first UK Open qualifier in Crawley, before losing 6–4 to Connie Finnan. In May, Hankey had his best finish on the tour to date, reaching the last 16 of the Players Championship Event 5, losing 1–6 to Raymond van Barneveld. In his first major event on the tour, the UK Open, Hankey beat qualifier Danny Dutson 4–0 and Andy Jenkins 4–1, but then lost to his old BDO rival Mervyn King 1–4 in the second round.
Health concerns
Hankey was drawn in Group B of the 2012 Grand Slam of Darts with Michael van Gerwen, Robert Thornton and Steve Beaton. He was whitewashed 0–5 by Thornton but defeated Beaton 5–3 to stay alive in the group. However, requiring a 5–0 or 5–1 victory over Van Gerwen in his last game to have a chance of progressing, Hankey visibly struggled with a three-dart average of 59, missing five successive shots at a single in the first leg (including two that missed the board completely) to set up a double. Hankey was then seen rubbing his left eye repeatedly and losing his balance, and Van Gerwen eventually won the match 5–0 with a 90 average. Two days later it was revealed that Hankey had suffered a transient ischemic attack, had very high cholesterol and diabetes and needed six to eight weeks' rest, which ruled him out of the qualifier for the 2013 World Championship.
Return to the oche
Hankey returned to competitive darts for the first time in three months in February 2013, in an attempt to qualify for the first European Tour event of the year, the UK Darts Masters. He beat Wayne Atwood in the last 96, before losing 3–6 to Keith Rooney. He produced encouraging displays at the second Players Championship by beating John Henderson 6–3, world number 15 Paul Nicholson 6–5 and world number four James Wade 6–1 to reach the fourth round. Hankey faced Dennis Smith and lost 5–6, missing one dart for the match in the deciding leg to play in his first PDC quarter-final. Hankey qualified for the UK Open and beat Bernd Roith and Dave Weston before seeing a 3–1 lead turn into a 4–9 defeat in the third round to John Part. He qualified for his first European Tour event in July but was forced to withdraw from it in September due to whiplash injuries suffered in a minor car crash. He returned for the Grand Slam of Darts and lost 5–3 in his opening group game to Scott Waites. However, Hankey produced a superb performance in his next game against Dave Chisnall as from 3–3 he hit a 170 finish and then scored 177 in the next leg to set up 32 and a 5–3 win. He then defeated 2013 World Youth champion Michael Smith 5–1 in his final game to progress to the knock-out stages, where he faced Simon Whitlock. Hankey made an amazing fightback from 6–1 down to win 10–9 and reach the quarter-finals of the event for the second time in his career. He played Waites once again and his run came to an end with a 16–10 defeat.
Return to the BDO
Hankey's two-year tour card expired after the 2014 World Championship and with him being ranked world number 94, well outside the top 64 who retain their professional status, he lost his position in the PDC. He registered to Q School, but withdrew from the event before it began. It was announced soon after that Hankey had decided to end his unsuccessful stay in the PDC and would return to the BDO.
In his first season back in the BDO, his best results were two quarter finals as he narrowly failed to automatically qualify for the Lakeside, being ranked 29 in the BDO (top 28 qualified). He also failed to qualify for the Masters, Lakeside and the World Trophy in the qualifying tournaments held in Hull. In 2015 he qualified for the 2015 BDO World Trophy but was beaten in the first round by Sam Hewson 6–4. As of May 2022, he and his wife were in the process of divorcing.
Conviction for sexual assault
In March 2022, Hankey was charged with sexual assault; the prosecution said his female victim was over 16 but under the age of 18. On 12 May 2022 at Chester Crown Court, he was sentenced to two years in prison and placed on the sex offender registry for ten years.
Career finals
|- style="background:#e5d1cb;"
| style="background:#98FB98"|Winner
| 1.
| 2000
| World Championship
| Ronnie Baxter
| 6–0 (s)
|- style="background:#e5d1cb;"
| style="background:#ffa07a;"|Runner-up
| 1.
| 2001
| World Championship
| John Walton
| 2–6 (s)
|- style="background:#ccf;"
| style="background:#ffa07a;"|Runner-up
| 2.
| 2004
| Zuiderduin Masters
| Raymond van Barneveld
| 1–5 (s)
|- style="background:#e5d1cb;"
| style="background:#98FB98"|Winner
| 2.
| 2009
| World Championship
| Tony O'Shea
| 7–6 (s)
|-
|}