"He's a very, very good player" - Luke Littler gives seal of approval to 15-year-old super-talent Mitchell Lawrie as record-breaking Lakeside debut awaits

A new teenage darts sensation is breaking records once owned by Luke Littler — and the reigning PDC World Champion has given his seal of approval.

Mitchell Lawrie, a 15-year-old from Scotland, will officially become the youngest player ever to compete at the WDF World Championship at Lakeside this week, overtaking Littler’s record held since 2022. And the numbers suggest this isn’t just a feel-good story — it’s the emergence of the next major star.

Lawrie’s rise has been rapid and ruthless. At just 15 years old, he's won:

the British Open

That treble makes him the youngest player in history to win three senior WDF titles — smashing Littler’s previous record.

He’ll start his maiden World Championship run against Tomoya Maruyama, with a potential showdown against No.2 seed Jason Brandon waiting in round two.

Littler has been watching Lawrie’s progress closely — and he’s impressed. "He's a very, very good player at such a young age like myself. Obviously, I think about my record for winning a WDF Open," Littler says in quotes collected by Sky Sports. "So that's another one he has taken off me but he's a very good player."

Littler famously handled huge expectations as a teenager. Now he sees the same challenges — and the same potential — in Lawrie.

"It is crazy. He's got to wait years for the Development Tour. But for now, he's just got to keep at it because he's got to wait. But there's plenty of opportunities out there for now for tournaments to go and win."

For all the hype around Lawrie, Littler says the real task is mental.

"You have just got to keep your head down. You still have got to keep going," he added. "Because I think at 14, 15, I was like 'oh it's another year till I can go on the Development Tour'. He's definitely thinking the same the way he's been playing. So just keep his head down and yeah you'll be on Tour."

It’s a blueprint Littler lived himself — and it turned him into a world champion before his 18th birthday.

It’s not just Lawrie making headlines. Paige Pauling, the 17-year-old girls’ world No.1, has become only the second player ever to qualify for both the WDF Girls World Championship and the WDF Women’s World Championship in the same season.

If she goes on to lift the women’s trophy, Pauling will become the youngest women’s world champion of all time, overtaking Beau Greaves’ record from 2022.

Pauling would be 17 years, eight months and 23 days old on finals day — another potential landmark for a new generation taking over the WDF stage.