Mitchell reflects on passing of darting legend Fordham: "His character was bigger than his stature"

Scott Mitchell has taken to the first year on the PDC like a duck to water and has embraced the challenge that a full run on the ProTour has given.

Mitchell spoke at the recent Sports Stars Fishing Championship and said he was loving the opportunity that presented itself.

"I've enjoyed the challenge. Just to have something that's a little different to what I've done for a long time and I really am enjoying it. I was lucky I had a go on a few of the Challenge Tours last year so I wasn't exactly blind. At the moment, it's working and we seem to be doing it," said Mitchell to Online Darts.

But while he was pleased about the challenge of the PDC, he also reflected on the sad news of Andy Fordham passing away including personal stories of 'The Viking' and how he found out the news.

"I was in a tractor actually. I have many reflective memories of Andy (Fordham), I got on really well, we contacted each other a lot. Three times a year we called each other if we hadn't seen each other, we travelled a couple of times together."

"I remember leaving my coat in his car and phoned him up and said you've got my coat in my car and he said is it the one with no sleeves, I said it's got sleeves on it and he said hasn't now, I just tried it on to see if it would fit me. That was Andy to a tee, that's how he was."

"His lovely wife Jenny phoned me and said I've got some bad news and that was kind of before it went public. Just a very sad day for darts, his character was bigger than his stature. He was just larger than life and if you knew him and you got to know him well, he was a great guy."

A lot has been discussed about the lessons learnt from Fordham's health and Mitchell believes this a wake up call.

"I think it should be a lesson to us as players that we've got to be careful and pay a little bit more attention to it."