"I believe in my own ability, I believe that I will win" – 15-year-old Mitchell Lawrie on the brink of sporting history with two World Championship finals in one day

Mitchell Lawrie’s dream week at Lakeside now has the chance to become a landmark moment in darts history. The 15-year-old Scot powered past 19-year-old Jenson Walker 5–2 to reach the men’s WDF World Championship final, just hours before he also steps on stage for the boys’ final against Florian Preis.

And even after another performance dripping with composure beyond his years, Lawrie’s words told the story of a teenager who is not just enjoying the moment – he genuinely believes he belongs on the biggest stage.

“I believe in my own ability. I believe that I will win, and whatever happens happens,” he said after the match.

This semi-final was always going to be different. A match with an average age of just seventeen, two prodigiously talented teenagers, and a crowd fully aware they were watching the sport’s future unfold in real time.

Walker started the brighter, reeling off three straight legs after Lawrie struck first blood. But just when the momentum threatened to run away from him, the young Scot found the reset button. He moved 2–0 up in the second set, survived a 104 finish from Walker, and levelled the match with a clinical 100 checkout.

From there, Lawrie began to loosen the shoulders. He sprinted through the third set, allowed Walker little more than a hopeful glance at a 164, and then held his nerve superbly in a fourth-set decider. After both players missed the bull, Lawrie calmly cleaned up double six — “keeping his composure remarkably well” barely does it justice.

But Walker wasn’t done. He broke throw again to close the gap and even surged 2–0 ahead in the sixth set. That was the moment Lawrie faced real, sustained semi-final pressure for the first time all week — and he admitted afterwards that he expected exactly that.

“I knew I was always going to lose a set at one point because I’m not going to keep playing brilliant players and not lose three legs,” he said. “He put me under a lot of pressure. Am I surprised? Absolutely not, ’cause he’s a great player.”

What followed was the turning point: two enormous checkouts, 104 and 112, at moments when Walker was poised to pounce. “When I was on the 104 and the 112, I didn’t want to leave tops… so I just attacked it and it went in,” Lawrie said. “I think the two big checkouts really helped me out. They took a lot of pressure off me.”

With the oxygen squeezed out of Walker’s comeback, Lawrie powered to the finish line and sealed it in style with a 125 outshot — yet another reminder of how heavily he leans on timing and temperament.

If the match showcased Lawrie’s scoring and finishing, the post-match handshake highlighted his maturity. He made a point of avoiding celebrations, explaining why afterwards: “He said, ‘Go smash it.’ He’s such a lovely guy,” Lawrie revealed. “He’s always been a really nice person and he always will be. I’ve got a lot of respect for him… I think it showed — no celebrations or nothing, just a lot of respect for the guy.”

And now, Sunday brings a double shot at history: the boys’ final against Florian Preis, and the men’s world final against top seed Jimmy van Schie — the latter a stage no 15-year-old has ever reached before.

Lawrie knows exactly what he’s walking into: “180s and pressure, ’cause I know whoever I’ve got in that final will just hit me with a bundle of thoughts,” he said. “I just need to be up for it, to be honest.”

One thing is absolutely clear: belief is not in short supply. “I believe in my own ability. I believe that I will win,” he repeated. It wasn’t bravado. It was conviction — the kind of conviction only the very best teenagers the sport has ever seen have carried with them.

Whatever happens in either final, Lakeside will remember the week Mitchell Lawrie arrived.