Mitchell Lawrie, 15, Advances to Lakeside Semi-Finals

Fifteen-year-old Mitchell Lawrie extended his stunning Lakeside run on Friday, dropping just three legs in a dominant 4-0 victory over Francois Schweyen to reach the semi-finals. The opening set was tight, both players trading ton-plus checkouts before Lawrie sealed it with a 16-darter in the deciding leg. From there he eased through — taking the second and fourth sets 3-0 and closing out the third with a superb 124 checkout. Lawrie averaged 92.06 and now faces fellow teenager Jenson Walker in the last four. By winning, the Scot, who turned 15 last month, became the youngest player ever to win a match at the iconic Lakeside venue, surpassing Luke Littler’s mark from 2022 when Littler reached the last 32 at 15.

Elsewhere, Jimmy van Schie and reigning champion Shane McGuirk served up a Lakeside classic packed with high finishes and fireworks, including three-ton checkouts and 14 maximums between them. McGuirk started strongly, claiming the first set 3-0, but van Schie hit back in the second with finishes of 76 and 127. The third set went the distance: van Schie moved 2-0 up with an 11-darter, McGuirk forced a decider, and van Schie clinched it with a 17-darter as the interval approached. Sets four and five were tightly contested; van Schie won three straight legs to take the fourth and then held throw three times to seal the fifth, finishing the match with a 97.36 average. Nicknamed “The Dutch Sequoia,” van Schie will meet Sybren Gijbels in the semi-finals.