Richie North has barely been a professional darts player for five minutes but has already proved he can mix it with the best in the world.

North, from Romsey, recently gave up his job as a bricklayer to try and make a living on the oche.

And he got off to a flying start in the Professional Darts Corporation’s UK Open qualifying competition by beating world number four Adrian Lewis in a live Internet streamed game.

North led Lewis before the super star broke to draw level at 4-4. But the newcomer hit back with a 12-dart leg, then lost the following game as he was broken again but claimed the nailbiting contest when his opponent missed one match dart.

And England’s Peter Wright, ranked three in the world, was pushed all the way by North in the qualifying series, which was staged over two weekends, with the flamboyant PDC regular eventually winning 6-4.

North’s performances netted him £3,000 in prize money and he came within a whisker of being ranked in the televised UK Open finals at Wigan in March.

North said: “I won a game beforehand but was thinking in that game ‘I would like to win this so that I can play Adrian Lewis on live stream’.

“When I got to play him I was a bit nervous at times, certainly on the winning double anyway.”

The top 32 players in a field of almost 200 will be ranked in Wigan and, although North is content with his dream start, he is not so happy he just missed out on one of the spots. He finished joint 32nd but lost out on countback.

He added: “I would have whipped someone’s arm off for that position before I started for sure.

“But I was a bit gutted that I did not end up with a seed. Obviously at the start I wouldn’t have expected it but then you get close and think ‘I could be a seed for the UK Open on TV’.