In the hallowed halls of the Lakeside Country Club, where the ghosts of darts legends like Eric Bristow and Phil Taylor still whisper from the rafters, a new prodigy is rewriting the script. Mitchell Lawrie, the 15-year-old Scottish sensation born in 2010, has stormed into the semi-finals of the 2025 WDF World Darts Championship with the ferocity of a Highland gale. At an age when most teens are navigating school exams and social media drama, Lawrie is navigating the oche like a veteran, dropping jaws and shattering records along the way. His latest masterclass—a ruthless 4-0 demolition of Belgium’s Francois Schweyen on Friday night—has not only secured his spot in the last four but also ignited a firestorm of buzz, drawing comparisons to the meteoric rise of PDC wunderkind Luke Littler. Yet, beneath the fairy-tale facade, Lawrie revealed a steely edge, admitting what truly “annoyed” him during the match: his opponent’s sly attempts at gamesmanship.
The evening session at Lakeside pulsed with electric tension as Lawrie, seeded from his blistering qualifying run, faced Schweyen in a quarter-final that promised fireworks. The 15-year-old, who only turned pro in the youth ranks last year after dominating local leagues in Renfrewshire, wasted no time asserting dominance. He kicked off with a jaw-dropping 111 checkout, the kind of ton-plus finish that silences doubters before they can even draw breath. A tidy 16-darter followed to clinch the opening set, setting the tone for a clinic in composure. Schweyen, a grizzled 38-year-old with a penchant for grinding out wins through sheer endurance, tried to disrupt the rhythm early. He dragged his feet on the walk-up, paused dramatically before throws, and fiddled with his darts in a bid to unsettle the youngster—classic Lakeside mind games designed to exploit inexperience.
It worked, briefly. Lawrie confessed post-match that the slow pace grated on him. “I think I let his pace get to me, and then as soon as I stopped letting his pace get to me, it was easy to be honest,” he said, his voice carrying the quiet confidence of someone twice his age. “He tried to slow me down. I think it’s because he thinks I’m not as experienced as him and maybe because I’m only 15. But I get people everywhere that try and do that to me. It doesn’t affect me at all.” What Schweyen didn’t anticipate was how that irritation fueled Lawrie’s fire. Midway through the second set, amid a flurry of scrappy exchanges, the Scot unleashed a monstrous 124 checkout—arrow after arrow threading the needle with surgical precision—to surge 3-0 ahead. The Belgian clawed back three legs across the match, but Lawrie’s response was unforgiving: a 92 checkout to break in the final set, capped by a 14-dart hold for a 4-0 whitewash. Averaging a shade under 92, with multiple maximums peppering the board, Lawrie dropped just three legs all night. As the dust settled, he and Schweyen shared a gracious handshake at the oche. “He’s a great guy off the board,” Lawrie added graciously. “He just said good luck for the rest of the competition and stuff. He is a really nice guy off the board.”
This victory etched Lawrie’s name deeper into Lakeside lore, making him the youngest semi-finalist in the tournament’s storied history—a feat that eclipses even Littler’s precocious exploits. Just days earlier, Lawrie had already turned heads by surpassing Littler’s record as the youngest winner at the venue. In his debut on Sunday, he dismantled Japan’s Tomoya Maruyama with a 90 average, a blistering 10-darter, and twin 145 checkouts—the second sealing a straight-sets triumph that left commentators speechless. That momentum carried into Tuesday’s second round, where he buzzed past American second seed Jason Brandon 3-0, the 2024 semi-finalist who entered as a heavy favorite. Lawrie fired five 180s and a clinical 121 checkout, admitting afterward, “I’m absolutely buzzing with myself, to be honest. Obviously the number two seed—he’s a very good, experienced player as well. He got to the semi-finals here last year, so I knew I was up against it from the start.” Nerves? Barely a flicker. When he bungled match darts on double two against Brandon, Lawrie shrugged it off: “Again, no—I just missed. I don’t know how to explain it. I don’t know what happened. It was double two, I missed it. I think there was just one guy who was shouting, ‘Come on, Jason!’ the whole time I was trying to throw, but except for that the crowd were great.”
The parallels to Littler are impossible to ignore, and the 18-year-old PDC world number one hasn’t shied away from the hype. Reacting to a clip of Lawrie’s exploits on the WDF Darts Instagram, Littler commented simply: “This kid is a joke.” It’s high praise in darts circles—a nod to Lawrie’s freakish talent that has insiders whispering of a changing of the guard. But the Scot is carving his own path, dismissing the shadow games. “I’ll never be him,” Lawrie has said firmly. “I’ll always be Mitchell Lawrie at the end of the day.” His resume backs the bravado: a two-time WDF Europe Cup Youth gold medalist, including a 2025 singles triumph over England’s Mason Teese; youth crowns at the Irish Open, Belgium Open, and Welsh Open (where he averaged a staggering 96.97 in the boys’ final); and now, three senior WDF titles before his 16th birthday. Off the board, he’s a picture of teenage normalcy—rooted in Scotland’s darts heartland, backed by the Target Elite program since 2023, and already eyeing a PDC Tour Card once eligible.
As the semi-final curtain rises on Saturday afternoon, Lawrie faces another teenage titan: England’s Jenson Walker, a power-scoring prodigy who’s mirrored his run with clinical efficiency. “I know it’ll be a great game because we’re both big power scorers,” Lawrie previewed, respect laced with hunger. “Jensen is really one of the best players in this building. I believe he will get a Tour Card when he’s older and he will go on to do more stuff.” The stakes couldn’t be higher: a win catapults Lawrie into Sunday’s final against either Dutch top seed Jimmy van Schie—the cool-headed favorite who dismantled defending champion Shane McGuirk 4-1 in a rafter-rattling thriller—or Belgium’s Sybren Gijbels. Van Schie, chasing a first Dutch title since Christian Kist’s 2012 triumph, looms as a formidable blocker, but Lawrie’s form suggests he’s ready to storm the summit.
The WDF Championship, running from November 29 to December 8 at the iconic Frimley Green venue, has always been darts’ underdog stage—a breeding ground for PDC crossovers where raw grit meets unpolished genius. This year, with a field blending global talents and a £50,000 prize pot headlined by £25,000 for the winner, it’s Lawrie stealing the spotlight. His averages hovering in the high 90s, unyielding focus amid provocations, and that infectious post-match grin have the crowd roaring. And as he eyes the semi, the kid who turns heads with every throw dropped a bombshell vow: “I’m going to kill it.” In a sport where one missed double can topple empires, those words aren’t bravado—they’re a battle cry. Will Lawrie claim the trophy and become the youngest WDF world champion ever? Or will Walker’s firepower douse the flame? One thing’s certain: at Lakeside, the prodigy has arrived, and he’s playing for keeps.
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