Scottish sensation Mitchell Lawrie continues to render former superlatives obsolete, testing the imagination to constantly invent new ways of describing his sheer, breath-taking brilliance.
Over the final JDC Advanced weekend of 2026, some of the finest young darts players on the planet assembled at Bristol’s Hangar61 for the concluding quartet of events. In the end, it was all about the 15-year-old from Renfrewshire, who claimed the lot. No surprises there then.
Cast your mind back a few years to the 16th century. If the Vatican City bosses had commissioned Michelangelo, instead of painting Prophets and Cherubs on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, to decorate it with depictions of some futuristic Scottish arrow-flinging prodigy, tourists craning their necks skywards would instead see lots of little winged Mitchell Lawrie’s.
Saturday’s opening double-header marked the beginning of what was essentially The Mitchell Show. Others played recurring roles, but the star was emphatically Mr Lawrie.
So, event one – or number seventeen for the season if you prefer. Back to numbers, and after three Englishmen were seen off, plus a Mongolian named Tergal Khurelkhuu – who, after looking at his performances this year, makes you wonder why he wasn’t chucking for his country at the World Cup instead of whoever they actually sent – Mitchell was into another final. Despite a brilliant ton-average display from Lewis Cook, Wee Sox claimed the title courtesy of a 6-4 success.
Onto the afternoon and the Scottish teenager was at it again. Opening up with victory over the kid from Mongolia thanks to a scintillating display. The young Asian played well, but unfortunately for him, fate had handed him all the warmth and compassion of a tax inspector. Another four members of the old enemy then fell, two of them by whitewash, before Lawrie saw off Jayden Walker 6-2 to double his daily tally.
Come Sunday, the rest of the youngsters had probably started a whip-round to send Mitchell off to the cinema instead, raising enough cash for popcorn, a hot dog and a Slush Puppy too. But tempting as the offer may have been, it came to nothing. The Scot showed up, decided to stay and began in the same vein he had left off.
Even on the Sabbath, prayers from the rest of the field that Mitchell might finally have an off day were soon sounding horribly out of tune. This time he began targeting Belgians. It hasn’t been a great year for the Flemish flingers. In fact, their best performer is probably Vinny D’Hondt, who’s cleaning up in anything darts-related involving throwing on two wheels.
The 15-year-old took out three from that nation to kick off day two, dropping just a single leg. He followed that with a brace of 4-1 victories over English lads Addison Hefferon – whose name absolutely screams private school and a father who insists on calling rugby “rugger” – as well as Lewis Cook to make yet another final.
Once there, he faced his first compatriot of the weekend, the highly talented Owen Bryceland, and showed all the mercy of a parking attendant with a quota to hit, beating him 6-2.
Into the final event of the Bristol trip and it was no longer a matter of whether Mitchell Lawrie would win, merely how easily he’d do it. Turns out, quite comfortably. In all but a couple of matches, he dropped just a single leg, one of those occasions being the final itself, when he once again defeated Lewis Cook, this time 6-2. Somewhere at home, Cookie probably has a little voodoo doll wearing a kilt and is currently throwing it at the wall.
That’s now a wrap for the tour. Twenty events in total. Wee Sox won a dozen of them, including the last six. That’s domination on the same scale as owning every property on the Monopoly board while your mate is sat there clinging desperately to Electric Company and Water Works desperately wishing they were at least the four stations.
Once he turns sixteen, it’s onto the PDC Development Tour. And don’t expect the Scottish prodigy to hang around there too long either. One season ought to do it, with most people expecting him to top that table, grab a Tour Card and become yet another youngster terrorising fully-grown professionals who still remember buying cassette tapes.
It’s going to be Luke Littler all over again. Only this time, in tartan form.
