Forfar Academy pupil Nathan Girvan will make his bid to become only the fourth Scotsman in history to become a world darts champion.
The Angus teenager is aiming to follow in the footsteps of Jocky Wilson, Les Wallace and Gary Anderson when he takes to the famous Lakeside stage on Thursday.
The 16-year-old will be appearing in the final of the BDO Lakeside World Youth Championship at Frimley Green for the second time in just three years.
The Lakeside final will be shown live on Quest and Eurosport in the UK and screened across Europe.
Nathan battled through tough competition at Bridlington Spa to book his place in the Lakeside final to set up a date with England’s Leighton Bennett in front of a worldwide TV audience of millions.
The Craichie lad will be given a tough test by Bennett who stunned the darting world in August by defeating a host of professional players to win his first senior event aged 12.
He was defeated by Holland’s Justin Van Tergouw when he competed in the final in 2017 but said he’s feeling confident he can go one better on Thursday.
He said: “I practised really hard over Christmas and I’m feeling confident this year.
“Everyone around me has been saying good luck and I’ve got a lot of support.
“As soon as I picked up a dart 10 years ago all I wanted was to be world champion so it would mean the world to lift the trophy on Thursday.”
Nathan has been throwing darts for as long as he can remember but things started to get serious when he joined the Angus Darts Academy, which is based at the Café Project in Arbroath.
He was unbeatable from the time he started playing every week at the academy which is run by Arbroath and Scotland international darts player Alan “Soots” Soutar.
“Everybody at Angus Darts Academy is immensely proud of Nathan and the kids will all be tuned into Eurosport on Thursday to watch his bid for world glory,” he said.
“Having come through the tough qualifier twice in three years shows he has the game to go all the way but this year is no easy final.
“Right now Nathan ranks amongst the top two or three youth players in the world.
“His first visit will definitely give him the edge this time round however his English opponent is also a very strong young player.
“Nathan has the ability and game to become world champion.”
Soots nicknamed Nathan “NvG” as his scoring prowess reminded him of fast-throwing Dutch sensation Michael van Gerwen who is a three-time world champion.
Nathan has a gruelling practice regime which he puts in place after school and is now dreaming of making a career out of the sport which now produces multi-millionaires.
