NEWLY-crowned world darts champion Scott Mitchell’s celebrations were a real family affair as he returned to his dad’s farm yesterday.
Bransgore-based ‘Scotty Dog’ won the 2015 BDO World Darts Championship with a nerve-wracking 7-6 win over veteran and three-time winner Martin ‘Wolfie’ Adams at Frimley Green on Sunday.
Scott, 44, scooped a cool £100,000 in prize money for a success that prompted the national media to descend on father Jeff’s agricultural plot in Ripley.
And Dorset’s darts talisman admitted the support of doting wife Sharon, children Katie and Sam and Jeff had been the catalyst behind his fairytale story.
Scott told the Daily Echo: “I owe it all to my family. Sharon and the kids have never tried to keep me from my darts so all this is all down to them.
“It has not sunk in yet. It feels like I have been to my local league singles and won.”
Sharon, 45, revealed how her calm exterior had become an important influence on “toy boy” Scott’s performances – even if she struggled to hold in her excitement at Lakeside.
“I was alright – on the outside I had to be steady as a rock but inside I felt like jelly,” she said.
“Scott likes me to be the calm one.
“I let go a couple of times in the last set but just shouted rather than jumping up and down. I always felt in my heart that he could do it.”
Daughter Katie, 21, who represents Dorset on the ladies’ darts circuit, said: “In his first three years at Lakeside I had this horrible, nervous feeling but it wasn’t there this time.
“Once he got through the (first round) match with Tony O’Shea I had a good feeling.”
Jeff, 67, added: “I have had boys and girls on tractors blowing their horns up and down the road all morning. The village has been going mad since Saturday. It is quite bizarre.”
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