Raymond van Barneveld
| Raymond van Barneveld | |
|---|---|
| Personal information | |
| Full name | Raymond van Barneveld |
| Nickname | Barney |
| Born | |
| Home town | The Hague |
| Darts information | |
| Playing darts since | 1984 |
| Darts | Triple B. Ghost-Grip 25 gr., 90% Tungsten |
| Organisation (see split in darts) | |
| BDO | 1995 to 2006 |
| PDC | since February 2006 |
| Current world ranking | 32 |
| WDF major events – best performances | |
| World Ch'ship | Winner 1998, 1999, 2003, 2005 |
| World Masters | Winner 2001, 2005 |
| World Trophy | Winner 2002, 2003, 2004 |
| Int. Darts League | Winner 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006 |
| PDC premier events – best performances | |
| World Ch'ship | Winner 2007 |
| World Matchplay | Did not qualify 2006 |
| World Grand Prix | 2nd Rd 2006 |
| UK Open | Winner 2006 |
| Premier League | SF 2006 |
| Desert Classic | Runner-up 2006 |
| Other tournament wins | |
| Tournament | Years |
| Doeland Grand Masters Brandstaff Masters | 1995, 2001, 2003, 2004 1999 |
| Other achievements | |
| 1997, 1998 Haagse Sportprijs 1998 BDO Personality Award | |
| Updated on 30 December, 2006. | |
Raymond van Barneveld (born April 20 1967 in The Hague, Netherlands), nickname Barney, is a professional darts player.
He is the current PDC World Darts Champion. His victory in the 2007 final, added to his four previous BDO Championships brought him level with Eric Bristow as a five-time world champion. He is the most successful Dutch darts player ever, and has single-handedly put the game of darts on the map in The Netherlands.
BDO career
Following a 3-6 defeat to Welshman Richie Burnett in the 1995 World Championship final, the former postman took his first world title in 1998 by overcoming his former conqueror by a scoreline of 6-5. He successfully defended the trophy one year later by the same winning margin, this time against Ronnie Baxter of England. He is only the second player in the tournament's history to have launched a successful defence of his title; the other being Eric Bristow. It wasn't until 2003 before Raymond appeared in another world final, duly completing a hat-trick of victories by beating Richie Davis of Wales 6-3.
A fourth title followed in 2005 (with a 6-2 triumph over Martin Adams of England) and on January 15, 2006 van Barneveld entered his sixth final aiming to equal Eric Bristow's record of five BDO world titles. On this occasion however, his hopes were ended by 21 year old fellow countryman Jelle Klaasen who prevailed 7-5.
He has also won the prestigious Winmau World Masters title twice: once in 2001 when he recorded a win in the final over Jarkko Komula of Finland and again in 2005 when he beat Swedish sausage maker, Goran Klemme in the final. Other major darts tournaments that he has won at least twice include The World Darts Trophy and The International Darts League.
PDC career
Speculation rose after Van Barneveld comprehensivly lost to Klaasen in the 2006 BDO Championship, whether he would stay after failing to match Bristow's record.
On 15 February, 2006, van Barneveld announced his move from the BDO to the PDC. He has cited his reasons as wanting a greater challenge, and regularly playing against players like Phil Taylor[1].
He was subsequently chosen to take part in the 2006 Premier League Dart competition. For five months, van Barneveld and six of the biggest names from the PDC circuit will compete in a league table, with matches held across the country at different venues. Within 24 hours after his big move, he won his first match in the Premier League Darts Competition, against Ronnie Baxter: 8-1.
The following month, on March 23rd in a Premier League match in Bournemouth, van Barneveld hit his first televised nine dart finish on the way to beating Peter Manley 8-3. After the match, he said "It's unbelievable - I've hit a few nine-darters in smaller tournaments but never on television".
"I've not got many dreams left in darts any more. One of them is to become the PDC World Champion and another was to hit a televised nine-darter, so I've achieved one of them."
Later that night, van Barneveld took on 13-time World Champion Phil Taylor, in a match billed as "the greatest darts match in years." In a match where neither player was at his best, "The Power" took a 7-4 lead before van Barneveld blasted back to earn a 7-7 draw. A similar story was developing in the return in Doncaster on 20 April, 2006 when van Barneveld came from 4-7 down to make it 6-7 and take it into a decisive 14th leg. However, he missed a double to tie the match and Taylor made him pay by checking out with double 7 to claim an 8-6 win and hand van Barneveld his first defeat in the PDC, on his 39th birthday of all days.
Van Barneveld eventually got to the semi-finals of the tournament (which were held on the 29th May 2006), but lost to the unfavoured Dutchman Roland Scholten 11-3, who in turn went on to lose to Phil Taylor in the final 16-6.
On 14 May, van Barneveld beat Colin Lloyd 13-5 in the final of the International Darts League in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, with which he won his 11th Grand Slam tournament.
On 11 June, 2006 van Barneveld won his first major PDC title when he won the UK Open at the Reebok Stadium, Bolton. He beat Barrie Bates in the final by 13 legs to 7. Earlier in the day, he beat the great Phil Taylor in the quarter-finals, accomplishing one of his dreams which he announced after switching to the PDC. After being 6-2 down early on in the best-of-21 leg match he clawed the deficit back to take it to the very last leg of the match. After Taylor had missed three darts to win the match, first two at double top and the third at the double ten, van Barneveld was left with 97 to claim an unlikely victory. He hit treble 19 followed it up with double top to claim an upset and his one of his biggest ever wins, and probably the most memorable, in his darts career in an epic match. He is the second Dutchman to win the UK Open, after Roland Scholten won it in 2004.
Van Barneveld beat Taylor again just weeks later on 1 July, beating "The Power" 4-3 in sets, after being 0-2 down in the semi-finals of the Las Vegas Desert Classic at the Mandalay Bay Hotel. He played Canadian John Part in the final the following day. Part lost the first set but went on to win the match, and so the tournament, by 6 sets to 3. After losing in the first round of the 2006 Bavaria World Trophy to rising talent Michael van Gerwen, van Barneveld acknowledged that he needed to work on his finishing throws. Although he played well in the Sky Bet World Grand Prix, he lost to Phil Taylor in the second round.
Van Barneveld and Taylor would meet again in the PDC World Championship final, with Barneveld coming from 3 sets down to beat Taylor 7-6 in the sudden death leg in one of the greatest darts matches of all time. Barneveld has now matched Eric Bristow's record of 5 World Titles.