"WDF have dealt with that so classy": Connor Scutt praises how Lakeside snub was handled

Connor Scutt heads into his maiden major Quarter-Final tomorrow against Dirk van Duijvenbode with a few feathers in his cap at the Players Championship Finals.

He sits in the top 64 of the Order of Merit meaning that he will at the moment go into the main tour without using the two year Challenge Tour where you start from zero. Instead he plays with his money won this year.

This in turn helps Christian Kist return to the tour. But 'The Sniper' has long shown as he did against Daryl Gurney that he belongs and is a dangerous player. He now heads into the final day with a real chance for even further progress.

"I feel good. That was my first ever long format game on TV or in the PDC so I'm very happy with that. Everything I set out to do I did and that was just win the legs before the break. I did that twice, the 119 just after Daryl missed the 117. After I took that out I went right there's only going to be two more breaks. If I take the 119 out, I've won both legs just before the break.

"After watching so many matches on TV for so many years, whoever wins that leg just before the ad break has the momentum. So I tried to keep that as much as I could."

"The 131 to be honest I didn't see coming to be honest. I hit the 51 and though the right shot is tops tops (two double 20's). The first one went in and the last one wasn't an aggressive dart, it was a floaty dart and it went in."

On reaching that top 64, he also snubbed Lakeside to play Ally Pally and rejoin the PDC and he praised Nick Rolls and the WDF for their support in his decision.

"My manager just showed me that I'm 63. It's still not work done. It makes the decision valid. What I will say is the WDF have dealt with that so classy. I mean Nick is here today spotting and he came up to me and wished me all the best today. When I made my decision he wished me all the best. There is no animosity from that organisation and you can't fault them for that."

But he is not dreaming of further glory. "I'm not yet, it's only the Quarter-Finals. I'm just going to do what I've been doing the whole time and taking every game as it comes. Every game is going to be on the Main Stage going forward so there's going to be ad breaks. A little bit of advice Ritchie Edhouse gave me before that game was don't treat the ad breaks as a break. It was more of a reset. I feel like I'm learning the intricacies of Butlins Minehead."

One part of his darting career that he does have though is a sense of belonging after joining forces with big names for practice and also being asked by James Wade to do 121 with him. A feeling that he says was previously alien but now feels right. "I feel like I belong now. I think for me it's because of the people I'm practicing with. During the week I've been practicing with Martin Lukeman. For the last few weeks I've been practicing with Damon Heta. The fact they want to practice with me means I can't not belong. They wouldn't bother practicing with me if I wasn't any good. It's took a bit of convincing but now I feel like I belong with these boys."