• BDO World Championship

Victory sealed with a Kist in Lakeside final

Christian Kist is the new BDO world champion after he held off a powerful Tony O'Shea fightback in Sunday's Lakeside final to defeat the veteran by a 7-5 scoreline.

Kist, appearing in his first World Championship final at the age of 25, was facing a man twice his age. O'Shea has forever been the bridesmaid and never the bride at BDO majors, falling in the finals of the World Championship, the Masters and the World Darts Trophy, and once again he had to settle for second place.

His opponent, by contrast, was ranked No. 13 in his native Netherlands just a year ago, and he had to survive a huge wobble when O'Shea roared back from 6-2 down to 6-5. Eventually Kist pulled himself together, earning a £100,000 cheque for his troubles.

O'Shea had taken out defending champion Martin Adams en route to the final, and the 2009 runner-up got a superb start against Kist, landing the first break of darts. That led to a first-set whitewash for the Silverback, who is ranked eighth in the world.

Kist finally got on the board in the second, and he benefited from one or two bounce-outs for O'Shea to level the contest. The Dutchman then moved ahead at 2-1, but only after O'Shea missed an 80 checkout for the third set.

The tide was switching fast, Kist finding a 180 at the perfect time to pressurise his rival into a mistake as the fourth set went to 2-2. O'Shea was sinking, but a double-16 checkout for the set saw him explode into passionate celebration as the scores became locked once again.

That was the veteran's last moment of joy for a while though as Kist took the next four sets. His first featured a brilliant 121 finish, before he bettered that with a 140 in the sixth set of the match, which featured four breaks of the throw.

O'Shea's checkout success rate was actually superior to his opponent at that stage of the contest, but he started choking his efforts, really handing sets seven and eight to Kist for a 6-2 lead. The Dutchman was the superior points scorer, hitting 180s with far more regularity as he moved within a set of glory.

Then came the fightback as Kist began to wobble with the finishing line in sight. O'Shea cut the deficit to 6-3 and then 6-4, stringing six straight legs together for 6-5 after Kist choked a 48 checkout.

The miracle was on, but after Kist took the first leg of the 12th set, he then moved to a 2-0 lead when O'Shea miscalculated, thinking he needed 52 instead of 72. Kist took full advantage and, after missing three nervy darts for the title, he finally took out double-16 for victory.

"I was 6-2 in front and everything was fine but Tony came back and the nerves came, so I was glad to take out that final set," a relieved Kist told the BBC.

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