PAUL Barham admitted the chance of securing a place in the PDC World Darts Championships offered a degree of comfort following his world youth championship heartbreak.

The 22-year-old darts professional from Pitsea had high hopes of making the final of the Professional Darts Corporation’s youth competition after finishing second in the order of merit.

But Barham lost 5-2 in the semi-finals at Crawley to James Hubbard, who will now meet Michael van Gerwen in the final next May.

“I’m pretty gutted to have lost out in the semi-final because I was hoping to do much better,” said former James Hornsby pupil Barham.

“The only consolation is that I have been told that I will be in the preliminaries for the men’s world championship.

“The PDC are having a meeting and will then confirm it once they have decided.”

If Barham gets the invite he will go into the preliminary rounds of the PDC’s blue ribband tournament at the Alexandra Palace in north London.

The annual event starts in December and runs for 15 days, with the preliminary rounds lasting from December 15-21.

Barham has spent a year on the PDC youth tour, winning three events, to finish second in the order of merit behind Dutchman van Gerwen.

He was confident of lining up a place in the final, which will be played at the O2 arena in Greenwich next May.

And he seemed on track after overcoming David Williams 5-3, Joe Hunt 5-1 and Rhys Dudley 5-1 to set up a semi-final with Hubbard at the K2 Centre in Crawley.

But the Essex player struggled to checkout against the 19-year-old player from Wymondham in Norfolk.

And that let Hubbard in to win 5-2 and emulate his father Vic in playing on the PDC circuit next year.

Barham will also be graduating to the senior PDC tour where he will be up against the sports big guns.

“I had not played Hubbard before and it was missing the doubles that cost me,” said Barham.

“I had been hitting them all day but for some reason in the semi-final they let me down.

“It was made worse because by making the final Hubbard also qualified for the Grand Slam of Darts and has been drawn against current world champion Phil Taylor.”