SWINDON thrower Josh McCarthy is celebrating after being crowned British Teenage Open champion for the second time in a row last weekend.

The former Kingsdown School pupil won the title in emphatic fashion by beating current BDO world youth champion Josh Richardson 4-1.

“(It was) a huge honour. A lot of quality players haven’t won it once so to win it back-to-back in the last two years that I can compete in; it is such a privilege. I’m very lucky,” said Richardson.

In last year’s tournament, McCarthy came out on top against Belgium’s Mike De Dekker, coming back from 1-0 and 2-1 down to win 4-2.

Winning the competition in 2015 meant he had experience on his side, which stood him in good stead for this year’s contest.

“I tried to keep everything the same as last year. I prepared in the same way that I always do, which is key,’’ he added.

“The added pressure of defending and it being my last year in it made me a bit shaky in the first couple of games.

“But I managed to battle through and when it got to the nitty-gritty stage, I managed to step up a notch.”

The 19-year-old is now looking ahead to his next big tournament, which will be the PDC Development Tour at the beginning of September.

“I would love to give the PDC qualifying school a go in January and see where that takes me,” added the teenager, who first hit the headlines back in 2010 when he defeated then 15-time PDC World champion Phil Taylor as a 14-year-old.

In 2012, his world ranking was 2359, which has now risen to 177.

Previous winners of the British Teenage Open Championship include two-time PDC world champion Adrian Lewis finalist Kirk Shepherd and semi-finalists Wayne Mardle, as well as former BDO world champion Stephen Bunting.

McCarthy was also part of the Wiltshire Youth team that won the Southern Counties U21 Champion of Champions event in Slough.

Wiltshire qualified for the event by coming from behind to pip Cornwall to the top spot in their division on the last day of the season.

Facing the league-winners from the other two divisions in Slough, Wiltshire’s first match was against Oxford, whom they dispatched 5-0 and then requiring any win off Kent to take the title, they clinched a 3-2 triumph.

Kieran Smith and McCarthy won the U21 pairs competition for the second year running and McCarthy added the U21 singles.

Wiltshire Youth are on the look out for new players for next term, aged between seven and 21.

The new season starts in September and the team meet on the first Wednesday of every month at the Rodbourne Cheney club at 7pm.

Rodbourne Cheney hosts a youth open day on August 20 (10.30am).

For more information, contact Craig Ludlow (07825 303149), Stef Venn (07903 408308) or Neil McCarthy (07753 286988).