Scott Mitchell ready for Q-School trip: "I don't want to live with the regret"

The 2015 world champion was one of the BDO's biggest hold-outs. Mitchell, a full-time Dorset farmer, famously committed his Lakeside winnings to the day job, and has not previously suggested switching codes. However, in light of the organisation's struggles, Scotty Dog has had a change of heart.

Mitchell, whose prize winnings are still unclear after making the semi-finals at the Indigo, refused to bad-mouth the BDO, but explained that Q-School was a personal must.

"It's a shame. I love the BDO, the BDO made me. They're in tough times, and some of us have got to do things we wouldn't have done before," he told Live Darts.

"I believe that if the money was there, we would've got it.

"I'm going to go to Q-School and try. It seems like it's going to be a massive thing.

"In all the time I've been playing, it's something that I've felt that if I didn't do, there would be a part of my darting life missing.

"If I do it, and I don't get a card - great. If I do get a card - great.

"It's something I have to experience. I'm 49 years old now, I don't want to get to 60 years old without doing it and live with the regret."

Mitchell very eloquently painted a portrait of the issues faced by BDO players at this moment in time. With the organisation teetering on the edge of collapse, players have headed towards Q-School and the relative certainty of the Pro Tour or Challenge Tour, in the knowledge that both will still exist for sure in a year's time.

"It's the clarity part of it - what happens after [the World Darts Championship]. There's a point where your sponsors look at you and say 'where are we going with this'.

"If I can't tell them, how difficult does it make it to stay on the circuit?" Mitchell mused.

"It's important that some sort of clarity comes out in the next few days, and we find out where we're going and what we're doing.

"We don't want it to fold. It's a massive, massive thing, the BDO. It finds people that other people don't find."