Hartlepool darts star, 15, helps England team win gold at Europe Cup in Austria

Callum Beddow, 15, faced incredible pressure at the international competition at the start of July, but managed to contribute to the team even when the odds seemed to be against him.

His game helped England win gold medals for the boys’ team event and the overall event.

Dad Paul Beddow, 42, said: "It was a great overall experience. It was really full-on, quite pressurising and stressful for him.”

He added: "We’re proud of him. He’s done really well. There’s more to come of him hopefully.”

The Europe Cup was the biggest competition Callum had ever taken part in with the England team.

The English Martyrs pupil has been a member of the JDC (Junior Darts Corporation) for the last four years and has played in the Junior World Championships in Gibraltar twice.

Paul has said the teenager showed resilience throughout the Europe Cup and came back determined to improve his performance as an individual player.

"He was very proud to have contributed to a couple of very important wins,” Paul said.

"He won some points for the team, that could have gone the other way and if he’d lost those legs instead of win them, it could have all been different.

"Albeit he did not play his best game, he did contribute quite a lot with some very key wins."

Paul added: "He didn’t give up. He didn’t quit. It could have been very easy for him just to throw the towel in, but he didn’t.

"There was a couple of points he won where he was way behind in scoring terms and he was way behind not playing his game at all and then he managed to win these points.

"He didn’t give in. He stuck it out and he won these pints, which was fantastic.”

Callum began playing darts when he was just three and was so small when he started to beat adults that he needed a step to retrieve his flights from the board.