IT has been a whirlwind 12 months for Bolton’s Scott Taylor, writes Tom Beresford.

The 25-year-old Westhoughton darts player, who now lives in Halliwell, has been knocking on the door of the PDC main tour for the past year and finally managed to earn his place at qualifying school last month.

After losing the last match of qualifying for the Grand Slam of Darts and World Darts Championships, the Boltonian admits it was a relief to finally win through.

He then went one step further to qualify for the UK Open, which starts on Friday at Butlins in Minehead and will be televised live on ITV4.

"It feels great to be back in the UK Open," said Taylor, who plays for The Crofters pub on Halliwell Road, in the Astley Bridge Darts League.

"I played in the tournament when I was about 18 and didn't really do myself justice, so this time I just want to show what I can do, especially after missing out on pretty much everything last year by one game."

Taylor, a former pupil at Westhoughton High School, earned his place at the UK Open at the start of the month.

He won through via the order of merit after reaching the last 16 out of a field of 245 entrants at the tournament's fifth qualifying event.

Wins against Michael Huntley (6-1) and Tony Newell (6-2) set up a meeting against ex-world champion Steve Beaton in round three. Taylor won 6-4 before clinching a place in the last 16 with a thrilling victory over Matt Padgett that went to the deciding leg.

He eventually lost against world number 16 Simon Whitlock but crucially earned £1,500 to rise high enough on the UK Open order of merit to qualify.

It followed on from his breakthrough success at the PDC qualifying school, which took place over four days at Robin Park in Wigan last month.

There were 16 two-year tour cards up for grabs, with the last four players at the end of each day winning a spot on the tour.

Taylor earned free entry to the school after finishing eighth on the PDC Challenge Tour last year.

His star continued to rise after earning qualification to two consecutive PDC European Tour events, which gave him key match experience.

Taylor used all of that knowhow to pick himself up after being eliminated in round one of the first day. He went on to reach the last 32 on the second day before finally qualifying on day three.

He achieved his dream with wins against Stuart Kellett, John Newman and Jason Wilson, before seeing off former European finalist Wayne Jones in a deciding leg in the last 32. After overcoming that nerve-shredding match, Taylor picked up momentum with a 5-3 win against Jamie Bain to reach the quarter-finals then breezed past Spaniard Antonio Alcinas 5-1 to earn his card.

The PDC tour starts anew after the UK Open with two tournaments the following weekend – the first of 22 Players' Championship events throughout the season.

And Taylor feels he is now equipped to compete.

"My consistency has improved a lot, which I think came with the experience I picked up last year in the Challenge Tour and European Tour events, as well as the Grand Slam and World Championship qualifiers," he said.

"I picked up a few wins over a couple of big names, which gave me the confidence and belief I can play with the best.

"The aim for qualifying school was obviously to get my tour card, but I knew that was going to be difficult.

"I was thinking 'just have four good days and build up ranking points' but after the first day that pretty much went out the window.

"To be honest, when I lost to Royden Lam I thought I had probably blown it, but luckily I was able to bring my A game on the Saturday to get through."