FORMER world champion Scott Mitchell made it to the last 16 of the Scottish Open before being bitten by The Count.

The Bransgore ace swept aside six players to set up a clash with seasoned campaigner Ted Hankey at Normandy Cosmopolitan Hotel in Renfrew.

But Hankey, a two-time champion at Lakeside, was in no mood to let Mitchell into the match and the Telford-based thrower wrapped up a 4-1 win.

That meant that Mitchell fell just short of the quarter-final stage having battled his way through a congested men's singles draw.

More than 2,000 players took part and Mitchell started off by knocking out Andy O'Raw 3-1 before disposing of Arry Edwards by the same scoreline.

Stuart Clark was next up and Mitchell whitewashed his opponent 3-0, later defeating John Roberts 3-1 to win group 48 of the draw.

Having thumped Paul Coughlin 4-0, Mitchell negotiated a route past Michael Meaney but found Hankey too hot to handle.

It was not the first time the Dorset county star had been denied a last-eight spot in recent times.

Mitchell last month missed out on a quarter-final berth at the Dutch Open after Toon Greebe landed a 170 checkout to win the decisive seventh leg.