Thorpe survives 'brutal' school to reach PDC tour

He may not be the next Luke Littler - especially as he is two years older than the reigning world champion - but Tyler Thorpe believes earning a place on the PDC darts tour will be "life-changing".

The 20-year-old from Norfolk came through the seven-day UK qualifying school in Milton Keynes, winning nine games and finishing third overall.

He is now looking forward to the possibility of mixing it with the likes of Littler, Luke Humphries and Michael van Gerwen.

"It's one of the most cut-throat tournaments," Thorpe told BBC Radio Norfolk.

"I know there's more games in Q school but if you look at the World (Championship), there were no nine-darters, but at Q school I think there were three and that's because everyone's putting their full willpower and grit into everything because they're all going for the same thing - it's so brutal."

Thorpe came within three darts of securing his tour card on the opening day but failed to take the opportunity and it came down to him needing to reach at least the quarter-finals on day seven to do so.

He duly managed that with a 6-2 win over Lee Cocks before bowing out to twice World Championship runner-up Mervyn King by the same margin.

"It still feels a bit surreal. I don't think the grin's going to come off my face for a couple of weeks or so until I'm actually on the tour and playing against the big dogs," he said.

"I just hope that I produce what I know I can do and cause some carnage for two years - and hopefully it's longer than two years."

Thorpe says he has always regarded darts as "a bit of a hobby" and he could hardly believe it when he learned that a place on the main tour was his.

"I walked back to my table not looking at anything. I didn't look at the order of merit throughout the day - I went back and everyone was congratulating me and someone said I was in the green and I thought 'no, no chance, surely not'.

"And then everything sort of sunk in - I didn't know what to do at that point, but it felt amazing."

Steve Beaton, the 1996 world champion, was among those who failed to secure a tour card at the Q school with Suffolk's Stephen Burton and King also making it through on the final day.

But it is 18-year-old Littler, who now sets the standards others must aspire to reach.

"It's now becoming a young person's sport, the amount of youngsters that are coming through and performing, and just doing so well," said Thorpe.

"A lot of them [older players] just have to hold their hands up and are giving out advice left, right and centre because that's the main thing they can do.

"I'm thankful for it because the amount of people that have spoken to me over the past week, and even the past few months, I've taken everything on board."

He has won on the Amateur Darts Circuit and the PDC development tour this year and is delighted everything is "getting bigger and better".

Thorpe added: "Now that I'm on the actual tour, this should be completely life-changing as long as I do what I know I can do.

"The hard work begins now, I guess. The aim is to stay on that tour as long as possible and I'm just so glad I've done it this early because with everyone coming up, it's going to get harder and harder, I think."