SCOTT Mitchell insisted life-changing hypnotherapy recordings had guided last night’s spellbinding BDO World Championship final against Martin Adams in his favour.

The 44-year-old Dorset darts ace held his nerve in a topsy-turvy final at Lakeside to secure a 7-6 victory, maiden world crown and £100,000 prize bounty.

Having failed to shine on the BDO’s biggest stage for so many years, Mitchell reluctantly relented to calls for a different approach and enlisted the help of Stephen McKibben of Assured Hypnotherapy, Belfast.

And while ‘Scotty Dog’ admitted to more than a hint of cynicism to begin with, the winner of Frimley Green’s landmark 30th championship revealed that McKibben’s work had completely altered his outlook on life.

Mitchell told the Daily Echo: “Stephen introduced himself to me at a tournament and said how he had helped a couple of players but I had no interest at the time.

“After I went out at Lakeside a couple of years ago, my shirt sponsor, Sally from Designs by Sazz, thought I needed a bit more mentally and that I should at least try it.

"You have to open your heart and tell him what your anxieties are, anything and everything you are not happy with and it is the hardest thing to do.

“As a darts player, you have to make everybody believe you can do it so to then do the total opposite and give away all your fears is a funny sensation.

“He then goes away and records a hypnotherapy MP3 which you listen back to in your subconscious while you are sleeping. I could go and put it on now, lie on the bed and he would put me to sleep. Half an hour later, he wakes you up.

“Deep down, I never believed it would work until we started seeing these amazing changes in me, not just as a dart player but as a person.

“I don’t get as angry as I used to. I would get stressed over nothing but Sharon (Mitchell’s wife) has noticed a change in that over the past year. I now find ways to laugh at the things that used to frustrate me.

“It makes you a much nicer person and then people are nicer to you. Your whole persona feels better and that is good for your darts.

“You are always going to lose matches and have to give credit to your opponents when it is due but I feel so confident when I play now. Stephen can’t take away everything but he is giving me something extra.

“It showed in the final. In the past I would have folded at 2-2 and lost it 7-2, no problem. But it didn’t happen and I had the belief, even after missing chances, that I would get that next dart.”