The Dog shakes his leg in Belgium

The Centre parks Open in Lommel was always going to be a tough event for me as I was defending my title from last year and it always adds a little bit of pressure to the day, which in all honesty is self imposed as most people forget who won anyway.

Luckily I got a walkover in the 1st round match at 10:50am which meant a stint on the chalk Board as its winner chalk 1st 2 rounds in Belgium.

I had a little wait till 1pm for my 2nd round match, so had a gentle practice throw to get my arm loose, and was very happy with a 180 start and 4-0 win.

My next game was also a 4-0 win that put me in the group final that I won 4-1 dropping my first leg.

When you get to group final you can’t help but look around to see who^s about you on the other boards close to you, but I wish I’d not as John "Boy" Walton was my next opponent , but my game was spot on and I won 4-1.

In the last 16 I faced rising star and Lakeside favourite Dean Winstanley, knowing his power scoring quick finishing was needed, and luckily it happened exactly as I needed and I won 4-2.

I faced Ross Montgomery in the quarter finals, and with the match evenly poised at 3-3 I held my throw to go 4-3, Ross missed 1 dart at tops in next leg and I closed the game out to Win 5-3.

Robbie Green was my Semi Final opponent who has been in great floor form all year.

In the first set I had 3 darts in my hand to win it 3-1 but missed my double 16 all along the wire and could have kicked myself, as it turned out to be the only shot I would get and lost the set 2-3.

In the 2nd set I kicked off well, held my throw and broke his for a 3-0 win.

In the last set I had one dart at tops for 1st leg and missed finding myself 2 legs down before I knew it as Robbie hit off very quickly. In the 3rd leg I threw a couple of 140s and was left on 66. Robbie had gone 40,45,180,180 to leave 56, where I missed the 66 and Robbie closed the game out.

All in all good points for the tables and happy that I’m playing well at this stage of the year and I get another crack at Robbie in 2 weeks time at the Zuiderduin Masters in Holland as we are in same round robin group.

Looking back I think my success was down to my Dutch friends Ramon and Marlie as they took me out for a meal locally the night before of Kangaroo and frogs legs,  no time to waste as I’m off to source some Kangaroo locally as my lucky food…..

Thanks for reading Scotty "The Dog” Mitchell