LIFE as a darts player can be a lonely place.

Hours of travelling to venues in Barnsley, Wigan and Milton Keynes are bread and butter for professionals on the PDC circuit.

For those in form, there are also regular trips across Europe, while the very best compete all around the world.

Of course, it all comes with the promise of big financial reward, if you can find a way to beat some of your fellow 127 tour card holders.

So, when Scott Mitchell failed to win a spot to stay on the tour for a third year in succession, he wondered if that might be it.

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The 52-year-old Dorset star strongly fancied his chances of being one of the 13 players to come through UK Qualifying School, a gruelling week-long event giving hundreds of hopefuls the chance to try and live out their dreams.

Mitchell’s early performances made it look like he was well on course to make his way through, only to fall just short.

At that moment in Milton Keynes, the 2015 BDO world champion admits he began to wonder if that was the end of his darting journey.

“Disappointment is a very funny thing,” Mitchell told the Daily Echo, reflecting on this year’s Q School.

“With any sport, you doubt yourself whether you’ve still got it or not.

“I was so disappointed, because I really thought I had the game to do it.

“So I was sat there just on the end of the bed, looking in the mirror that was on the wall in the Hilton, where it was being played and thinking ‘I think I’m done, I think I’ve had enough, is it time to knock it on the head?’.

“I was contemplating retirement and where do I go next, what do I do? I’ve been touring now for 15 or 16 years.

“And then your family get hold of you and you see that your averages were great and then you start getting messages from other players and other friends, who have said ‘wow, you were so unlucky’.

“And then you start looking into it because you don’t think clearly when you’ve lost.

“The annoying thing is, I still feel I’m playing as well as I’ve ever played.

“I’m proud of what I’ve been achieving.

“I really hoped to get the card back and I really wanted to do another two years at the Pro Tours. It wasn’t to be.”

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As that chapter closed, for now at least, another one quickly opened which soon got Mitchell back on course.

“I was sat in a hotel room, pretty despondent, pretty disappointed and then get a call from the World Seniors Darts Tour,” Mitchell explained.

“They rang and said ‘Scotty, you’re over 50 aren’t you? Would you be interested in taking part in the World Seniors Darts Championship’. I said, ‘wow, that’s only a few weeks’ time’.

“I hadn’t really thought about it. I asked if I could have a little bit of time, just to think it over.

“I gave my wife Sharon a call and we thought a new challenge might be the right thing to do, so we accepted.

“It was the strangest few hours of being so despondent and so disappointed to hang on a minute, another door has opened and being so excited about darts again.”

The World Seniors events are specifically for players aged 50 and over, with a host of star names set to compete at the World Championship at the Circus Tavern in Purfleet this week.

Mitchell, the joint favourite with the bookies alongside Phil Taylor to win the event, gets his quest underway against three-time world finalist Peter Manley on Thursday night.

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Also among the field are fellow former world champions Glen Durrant, Martin Adams, John Part and Trina Gulliver, as well as reigning World Seniors champion Robert Thornton.

Mitchell said: “When I was announced as being on the World Seniors, I think there’s a few people going hang on, he’s not old enough!

“It’s lovely, this outdoor air on the farm, it does your skin complexion the world of good. I must look a lot younger than I actually am.”

He added: “It’s on BT Sport, so it’s a fabulous opportunity, fabulous for my sponsors as well.

“It’s a no-brainer, I just can’t wait to go.”