Lawrie, 15, eyes £501,000 live TV win over Littler

At just 15 years old, Mitchell Lawrie has his sights on a £501,000 bullseye should he beat world darts champion Luke Littler in a potentially life-changing live appearance on national television.

The Renfrew teenager is one of 24 amateur players chosen to take part in Netflix's live special, Beat Luke Littler, which will be broadcast from the Manchester Central Convention Complex on Friday.

Each contestant has the chance to face Littler in a single leg of 501 but the first to beat the 19-year-old two-time world champion will land the big-money prize and bring the competition to an immediate end.

"If someone has already beaten Littler, that's the show done," Lawrie told BBC Radio Scotland Breakfast.

He added: "There's a bundle of good players in there and you're just hoping you get a chance before they get a chance. There's a few big names I want to go before."

Lawrie admits "there's going to be nerves there obviously" and "being live on Netflix at 15 years of age is just something else".

However, he points out: "Everybody there has a chance at the end of the day.

"He is obviously the best player in the world so it may be only one leg of darts but it is a very hard leg to win."

Nevertheless, Lawrie already has a victory over Littler under his belt.

"It was at the World Cup junior darts in Gibraltar in 2023, Scotland against England and we beat the team that Luke Littler was in," he recalls.

"We beat them 4-3 in a deciding leg and it's one of those memories that sticks with you forever.

"We also went on to win that tournament. It is the first time Scotland ever won the World Cup and it was my first year - it was something else.

"It was a surreal experience that I would love to have back."

Indeed, Lawrie was crowned WDF Open Youth World Champion last year before being described as "the future of darts" by Jimmy van Schie after the Dutchman beat the Scot when he became the first teenager to reach the WDF World Championship final in December.

Lawrie, whose inspiration is former world number one Gary Anderson, twice winner of the more prestigious PDC World Darts Championship, says he has been playing darts since his grandfather mounted a board on a chair when he was two years old.

"It just spiralled from there," he says. "But I never took it seriously until three and a half years ago.

"People still want to be a professional footballer, and it was the same for me, but I realised at a young age I wasn't good enough for it so I had to do something else and I just chose darts and I stuck to it and turned out quite good at it."