THE newly-crowned darts world champion Scott Mitchell has been dropped by his local league team this week – all because he missed a match.

Within 24 hours of landing the coveted BDO trophy and the £100,000 prize, the farm lad who lives near Ringwood had to cede to Wimborne League rules, meaning he is unable to play for his local team.

But he can at least buy his dad a spanking new tractor.

It has been a long journey to the top for Mitchell. However sitting in his living room with the famous BDO trophy at his feet he looks like the most relaxed man in the world.

“I am just the village kid that drove the tractor and now I am world champion,” he said.

Growing up on a farm just outside of Ripley, ‘Scotty Dog’ as he is known in the darting community, has always been a local man and a reader of the Forest Journal.

“I started playing darts in the New Queen Pub in Avon because I used to be part of Young Farmers’ and we always used to go to the pub after meetings.

“My mate said he was short of players for his darts team. I couldn’t play and hadn’t even got a set of darts, but said I would give it a go.

“I went bang, bang, bang, hit the board three times so nothing special but all of a sudden I was playing in a team.”

It was just two years ago that Scott feared his career might be cut short when he was diagnosed with diabetes. It meant that he had to cut down on the alcohol – something that he feels has had an enormous benefit to his career.

 

“I thought you couldn’t play darts without the drink but now I am doing without it and it is fabulous. I am playing better for it; I am now playing with my mind, not just the arm.”

Darts runs in the family with his daughter Katie, 21, and son Sam, 18, playing in local leagues, and Scott hasn’t quite ruled out his children following in his footsteps.

“There is no reason why not,” he says.

“Katy plays in the Christchurch league, Sam is in Ringwood and I go to Wimborne while Sharon stays in and looks after the dog.

“I was due to be playing last night in the Wimborne league but as I had missed my game last Monday that meant I would have to be dropped this week, world champion or not.

“So I went from picking up the trophy at 8pm one night to being dropped by my own local team the following night!”

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His winnings of £100,000 will go in part towards a new tractor for his Dad’s farm.

“I kind of messed up there,” he jokes. “I didn’t think I would be going to the final at Lakeside and also win. I was giving it the big one, saying ‘Dad, if I win this I will buy you a new tractor’ and I never in my wildest dreams thought I would win it.

“We have got a few rough tractors so maybe we can swap the old ones and get a nice one.

“You want a tractor that you can jump in and just turn the key and that isn’t something we can do at the moment.”

With the dart board in his lounge surrounded by inspirational pictures you are left with the feeling that behind the laughs and the jokes Scott, above everything else, is just a massive fan of the game.

“When the winning dart went in on Sunday night I didn’t know what to do – all my energy had gone and my body was drained,” he recalls.

“So Woolfie - Martin Adams - said, ‘Get up, shake my hand and run around the stage’.

“The rules are you haven’t won until you take your darts out so I took them out but then forgot to shake the referee’s hand.

“I didn’t know what to do, I was on Cloud Cuckoo. Then I had to do a bit of a Pat Cash and go and meet my dad, wife and my family.”

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For the future Scott says that he wants to carry on working as a landscape gardener and has no plans to turn professional.

“I have built up my gardening business over the last seven years. I have a really good clientele and I want to keep it like that.

“They are from all round the forest and they are very understanding about what I do so I don’t want to lose them.”

On Sunday Scott won by seven sets to six.

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Scott with his dad Jeff, wife Sharon, and children Katie and Sam