Teenage sensation Mitchell Lawrie extended his remarkable Lakeside run on Friday, losing only three legs in a commanding 4-0 victory over Francois Schweyen to reach the semi-finals.
The opening set was tightly contested, the pair trading ton-plus checkouts before Lawrie clinched it with a 16-darter in the deciding leg. From there Lawrie eased through, taking the second and fourth sets 3-0 and finishing the third with a superb 124 checkout.
The Scot, who only turned 15 last month, averaged 92.06 and will face fellow teenager Jenson Walker in the last four. Lawrie became the youngest player ever to win a match at the iconic Lakeside venue, edging Luke Littler’s previous mark set in 2022 when Littler reached the last 32 aged 15.
Elsewhere, Jimmy van Schie and reigning champion Shane McGuirk produced a Lakeside classic filled with three-ton finishes and 14 maximums. McGuirk began strongly, claiming the first set 3-0, but van Schie responded with an excellent second set featuring finishes of 76 and 127.
The third set went the distance, van Schie moving 2-0 up with an 11-darter before McGuirk forced a decider; van Schie sealed it with a 17-darter going into the interval. Sets four and five stayed tight, but van Schie edged both — winning three consecutive legs to take the fourth and holding throw three times to clinch the fifth — finishing with a 97.36 average.
Van Schie, nicknamed “The Dutch Sequoia,” will meet Sybren Gijbels in the semi-finals.