Raymond van Barneveld was left flabbergasted by
Maik Kuivenhoven as despite the doyen of Dutch darts sealing his progression to the final day, it shouldn't have been as hard as it was on paper given the circumstances pre match.
Kuivenhoven replaced Gerwyn Price late on in Prague and had to drive to Frankfurt to get a flight over, they lost his bags and he didn't have his match kit. He had to buy a polo and a set of Raymond van Barneveld darts off the merch desk to play the great Dutchman.
He pushed him to the limit and Van Barneveld in a similar vein to his impassioned Stephen Bunting speech albeit without the emotion was full of praise.
"The guy went in just half an hour before this match. Can you believe this? Above all he lost his suitcase at Frankfurt Airport so he was playing tonight with different darts. The funny part was my darts and how awesome did he play. I couldn't believe this in the first nine legs and wow what a respect you must have for this guy. Hopefully he will qualify for the World Championship and he will deserve it as he played awesome," said Van Barneveld.
"He missed a couple of darts, couple of shots at double. But he needed to come as the prize money and the ranking money was important to qualify for the World Championship. It was not easy for him, he lost his suitcase in Frankfurt and he made it here half an hour before the match."
"I'm over the moon to win this game as I thought I'm going to lose this one as he was playing so solid even with my darts. I was thinking stop this. I got a tight little chance but wow I've got a lot of respect for this guy."
