Concern for Barney: Raymond van Barneveld posts his worst-ever Pro Tour average at Players Championship 2
PDCWednesday, 11 February 2026 at 13:45
Van Barneveld has not started his 2026 Pro Tour season the way he likely hoped. Across two days, the Dutchman managed to win only one match and also recorded his lowest average on the PDC Pro Tour ever.
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The Dutch darting icon opened his season at the first Players Championship events of the year in Hildesheim, Germany. He had earlier decided to skip the qualifiers for the Winmau World Masters, held on the last weekend of January.
The 58-year-old already had two exhibitions scheduled with the football club FC Twente.
He could then fully focus on his first two floor events of the year, but unfortunately for “Barney” things did not go well. On Monday afternoon, the Dutchman lost his opening match 6-2 to newly minted Tour Card holder Tom Sykes, making for a poor start to his week.
Although he did win his first match on Tuesday at Players Championship 2 by 6-3 against 18-year-old German talent Yorick Hofkens, his second outing was disastrous. Van Barneveld was beaten 6-1 by England’s Owen Bates, posting a paltry average of just 69.39.
Van Barneveld’s 69.39 marked his worst average ever on the PDC Pro Tour.
Beyond being a dreadful start to his Pro Tour season, this match also went down as the worst average he has ever thrown on the PDC Pro Tour.
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Last month it emerged that Van Barneveld is going for coffee with former professional footballer Rafael van der Vaart, who has offered to help the Dutchman give his career a boost. The question is whether that will pay off, or whether we will see Van Barneveld slowly fade from the scene over the coming year.
“Barney” is back in action twice today at the European Tour Tour Card Holder Qualifiers, where he hopes to qualify for the first two Euro Tour events of the year. These are the Poland Darts Masters and the European Darts Trophy. To achieve that, however, he will need to play far better than averaging just 69.
Kieran WoodDarts Journalist
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He contributes to DartsNews.com, where he covers professional darts through news, match reports, analysis, and live coverage across the PDC calendar and major tournaments.
A key part of his work is on-site reporting from leading events. Kieran has covered the PDC World Darts Championship in person, reporting daily from the venue and providing first-hand insight from the tournament. During his coverage, he has conducted interviews with leading players including Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, and Gerwyn Price.
He is also one of the leading voices of the English-language Dartsnews Podcast, contributing regular analysis and discussion on developments across the professional darts circuit.
In his reporting, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles when new, verified information becomes available.
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- If he can be bothered? He won't play darts in Germany yet he'll go over and get an award!??rick6702-09-2026
- Why is this the main story? He chose not to compete in loads of tournaments,yes he's number 1 in the world,but he does have to turn up at tournaments! Play the next world championship in Dortmund and see if he turns up!!rick6727-08-2026
- This is exactly what I mean,littler survives the 1st round,I think you'll find a lot of other players did. Can you just report on the real sport,and not just 1 person. I like Luke,but this is getting boring now,as Kevin painter once said to Taylor!! The sport is about every player,not 1 who everyone seems to have put the sport on the map.,which he hasn't,he's just got in when the money is massive. Great as he is,it seems like what's the point in anyone trying,he's going to win everything,unless it's in Germany or Australia!!!rick6726-08-2026
- I mean look, Littler's picture is first,wattimena is second and he won! Level it up. I know littler is fantastic,but the sport was here before him,and will be when he's retired. Any player in the top 64/128 can beat each other,it's not big news. Poor Jermaine,wins it,and not even the headline!!rick6726-08-2026
- I appreciate that littler is a fantastic player,but the top 3 articles are about him. Before he'd thrown a dart in the tournament. Level it out a bit, Taylor and van gerwen soon got disliked as the media could only see them,and nobody else seemed to matterrick6725-08-2026
- The two-point Lucky Loser qualifiers are Ross Smith, Robb, Whitlock, Sakai, Ilagan and Toylo. Jermaine is not on the entries list on Dartconnect for the TCH qualifier so the four from the main OoM are probably Searle, Nijman, Dobey, Wattimena.Scoobedybop24-08-2026
- The two-point Lucky Loser qualifiers are Ross Smith, Robb, Whitlock, Sakai, Ilagan and Toylo. Jermaine is not on the entries list on Dartconnect for the TCH qualifier so the four from the main OoM are probably Searle, Nijman, Dobey, Wattimena.Scoobedybop24-08-2026
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