Stompé recalls Van Barneveld effect looking back on early defeat to Mason in 2000: "They feared for the ratings"

Raymond van Barneveld became world champion with the BDO in 1998 and 1999. In 2000, he headed to Lakeside for a third world title in a row, but things went wrong as early as the first round.

Co Stompé reached the semi-finals at that World Championship and looked back on it on The Big Fish podcast. "I remember Raymond losing to Chris Mason in the first round and SBS panicking afterwards. Their signboard was out of the tournament and they feared for the ratings."

"But that World Darts Championship opened the doors for me to make a career. When I won against Andy Smith in the first round, the channel fully backed me and called on the Dutch at home to do the same."

In the second round, Stompé faced Steve Coote. "The Matchstick (match) against a fireman, BBC ended up making a nice video of it and I won that match 3-1. In the quarter-finals, I then had to take on Mervyn King. In the hall, there was an atmosphere of the Netherlands against England. Mervyn was talking the whole time, but I won that match easily 5-2.

Semi-finals

Stompé eventually lost 5-2 to Ronnie Baxter in the semi-finals. "But I did gain notoriety through that tournament. Suddenly, besides 'Barney', there was another Dutchman doing well. In 1998, Roland Scholten had also reached the semi-finals of the BDO World Darts Championship, but that was the year Raymond became world champion for the first time and that semi-final place of Roland got little resonance as a result. So you see how things can run sometimes."