DORSET darts star Scott Mitchell revealed he exchanged messages with Luke Littler during the teen sensation’s historic run to the World Darts Championship final.

At just 16, Littler became the youngest player to reach the final of the PDC event, defeating a host of big names along the way, including Raymond van Barneveld and Rob Cross.

His fairytale journey was ended in the final, as new world number one Luke Humphries came from two sets down to win 7-4 at Alexandra Palace in London.

It was Littler’s debut in the event, having previously won a host of titles in the lower age groups, including two junior world titles and this year’s PDC youth crown.

Mitchell, the 2015 BDO world champion, hopes to return to the PDC tour in 2024, and is gearing up to head to qualifying school in Milton Keynes next week.

Discussing Littler’s run at Ally Pally, 53-year-old Mitchell told the Daily Echo: “I watched Luke all the way through.

“A couple of times he sent me messages over the last couple of weeks, which is nice, just about varying things, including the media side of it.

“Nothing in depth, because he’s obviously been preparing, but it’s nice that he felt he was happy to just message me back on a couple of things. That was great.

“And (my daughter) Katie used to play alongside Luke Humphries for a year in the Hampshire youth team, when she was 21, so I really didn’t mind who won, from a personal point of view.

“I think Humphries deserved it in the end, but Littler had a couple of big turning points and he missed them both, unfortunately.

“But he’ll learn to hit those, or you never hit them. It’s the same with my career really, there are lots of turning points every time, you can’t hit them all.”

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Asked how he knows Littler, Mitchell explained: “We met each other when he was 10 or 11, at the Isle of Man Open.

“He was just a super, super straightforward lad. You’re watching him play and thinking, ‘oh wow, if you can keep this up mate, you’re going the right way’.

“I didn’t play him, I just met him. I remember watching him playing in the youth event thinking ‘this kid is brilliant’.

“He’s got better and better and better. So at 16, he’s been in more world finals than I have!

“I’ve been playing 14 or 15 years, and at 16 he’s probably got more experience than I have, which is the daft side of it really.”

Quizzed on what he was up to when he was 16, back in the 1980s, Mitchell said: “I’d only just started playing darts then. At the pub you weren’t particularly accepted.

“At that time, if you wanted to play a game in the pub, you had to be 18 and around that time, the youth movement hadn’t started. So there was nothing for me.

“I had to wait until I was 18 until I was allowed in the pub to play. So other than that, I was probably driving tractors or something!”

While the majority of the national focus has been on Littler’s stunning run, which also saw him defeat Christian Kist, Andrew Gilding, Matt Campbell and Brendan Dolan, Humphries too has had a special rise to the top.

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Thinking of quitting the game due to anxiety issues a few years ago, ‘Cool Hand’ has risen up through the rankings and won four of the last five major events, including his maiden world crown.

Discussing the 28-year-old, who beat Mitchell twice on the tour in 2022, Scotty Dog said: “If he’d have gone 5-2 down, that would’ve been a super test of his strength.

“But when he got back to 4-4, there looked like no other winner really.

“He just has this ability of being able to string it together leg after leg after leg. We all do 11, 12 or 13-darters, and then we go and do an 18 and a 15. He doesn’t, he goes and does 11, 12, 14, 11, just absolutely turns it on.

“I’ve been out and had food with him, when I had a tour card.

“He’s just a nice enough guy to be around. You really couldn’t have had two nicer guys in the final, to be honest.

“Luke originates from Newbury, but lives up the country now, which has kind of made him really, moving away and finding practice partners up there.

“They’re both really good lads and it is what darts needed.

“There were 3.75million people watching the final, more than watched the Ryder Cup or the Ashes, the second most watched thing ever on Sky behind football.

“How much of a better position can darts be in?”