DORSET star Scott Mitchell is hoping to take the bull by the horns during the first round of the PDC World Championship today, writes Phil Lanning.
But the 51-year-old farmer admits he is still as used to looking after bulls on his farm, rather than hitting them on the dart board!
Mitchell is set to take on Dutch Ace Chris Landman at the Alexandra Palace during the afternoon session.
The 2015 BDO world champion, Scotty Dog admitted he was still balancing his time on the farm as well as working on his darts, ahead of one of the biggest games of his life.
He told The Sun: “I’ve been prioritising the darts for the past few weeks. It’s very hard sometimes to work the farm and darts.
“It’s tough to get yourself up for practice at the end of the day, you can be very tired. So it’s better to try and do some in the morning.
“I get up about 7am, do a few jobs then come back in and have a throw. Then maybe pop back in the evening if I’m feeling it.
“When you’re a farmer you’ve got to do a bit of everything. You have to be a part-time vet, fencing specialist, tractor driver, mechanic and electrician. You have to be able to turn your hand to anything.
“I’ve got pedigree Hereford cow, a total of 45. I’ve now got my own pedigree herd about two years ago.
“Once you rear the calves from September to March, then you have to do the mucking out. Some of it by tractor and some of it by hand.
“The toughest job is castrating. If you have cows with horns, they can hurt one another and gauge each other. So when the calves are born they have small buds and we remove them, then the horns don’t grow.
“You have to get hold of them and castrate them, they can be feisty devils so that can be physically tough.”
The winner of the whole event will land a considerable £500,000 of the £2.5million prize fund.
Mitchell added: “Dealing with a herd of cattle is just like a herd of players in the PDC. And just like cattle, you’ve got one or two who don’t like you!
“When I see a few darts players having a row at tournaments I find it quite funny. I’ve stopped a 500 kilo cow trying to run up a cattle path. You have to face them head on to stop them.
“If the gate is open it’s either you stop it or the animal is out. So you learn to be stop it and not run out of the way.”
Should Mitchell progress in his Ally Pally opener, he would play Ian White in round two.
(Pictures: Taylor Lanning)
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