SCOTT Mitchell revealed how he was brought back down to earth just hours after clinching a spot on the lucrative PDC tour, by having to attend to newly-born calves on his Dorset farm!

Bransgore ace Mitchell is set to begin life as a tour card holder among the Professional Darts Corporation for the first time tomorrow, after successfully coming through Qualifying School.

It took the 50-year-old until the final day of action to secure his spot, winning just two games across the opening three days of competition.

Needing a deep run to have any chance of booking his place on tour, Mitchell stormed to seven victories, beating American Danny Baggish in the final in Milton Keynes.

But the 2015 BDO world champion said when he returned back home, reality quickly hit.

"I’ve got to be honest, I came home and about 15 minutes later some new baby calves arrived that needed feeding," Mitchell told the Daily Echo.

"That was about 15 minutes after I got home so we were straight into calf feeding and everything.

"It’s the best way. I remember with the Lakeside win, my dad when I came home. I said ‘what a great thing, dad’, he said ‘yeah it is, don’t forget that stable still needs mucking out over there’.

"So 25 minutes after being home having been on all the back pages of all the tabloid news and everything, I was shovelling muck and being dropped from my dart team at West Moors Social Club. So I didn’t quite have that blessing back, but pretty close."

But focus this week will very much be on the oche.

Mitchell is set to travel to Bolton, to compete for four consecutive days from tomorrow in the opening events of the PDC calendar, with 128 players battling it out for their share of the £300,000 prize fund in the Super Series.

Discussing his last-gasp triumph at Q School, Scotty Dog said: "I’m absolutely over the moon. It proves one or two people wrong. But I think the real hard work starts now because it’s not going to get any easier, it’s just going to get harder than that. I’m looking forward to it immensely.

"I think lots of people felt I was comfortable with the BDO and sat in my armchair with not too much of a struggle to make the top 10 doing things the way I did it. Lots said I would probably never go over (to the PDC).

"But it was more for myself than anything. You can read all the stuff on social media and papers and stuff, but when you start believing it, you’re in big trouble. You’ve got to stay hungry and carry on like you’re throwing your first dart every time when you went for your first game in the pub."

Mitchell admitted he was nervous during the opening day of action at Q School, where he lost to Fallon Sherrock, but by the time day four rolled around, his attitude had changed: "It really was a nothing to lose attitude. I’d had enough disappointments, I was getting fed up of them to be honest.

"Once I was through in the semi-final I had a little breakdown in the corner and thought, my God, I’ve done it."