wordplay - The answer to this riddle is a number

I made this up myself a while back, just thought I'd share:

The key to this riddle is only for you

Below are instructions, above this the clue
First strike the one near the head of a year
Then remove he who begins a cheer
Next take away the end of a tunnel
Then let us go to solve this puzzle
What you first took you must now take again
With three you are left, but fret not dear friend
Fattest to front and thinnest to rear
Add in two "eyes" and all becomes clear

Like the title says (I'm not very good with titles), you're looking for a number here.

Edited to add a hint:

As you can tell from the title, I tend to be very literal with my words.

Answer

Answer:

18, or XVIII in Roman Numerals

Rationale:

The key to this riddle is only for you

Exclusive

Below are instructions, above this the clue

First strike the one near the head of a year

Take away an "e"

Then remove he who begins a cheer

Take away a "c"

Next take away the end of a tunnel

Take away an "l"

Then let us go to solve this puzzle

Take away a "u" and an "s"

What you first took you must now take again

Take away another "e"

With three you are left, but fret not dear friend Fattest to front and thinnest to rear

Arrange the remaining letters, XIV, in order of size - XVI

Add in two "eyes" and all becomes clear

Add two further "I"s to get XVIII