FORGOTTEN DARTERS: Barrie Bates, the opponent in Raymond van Barneveld's first PDC major final

In this column, we regularly reminisce about 'forgotten darters' from the past. Today it is the turn of Welshman Barrie Bates.

Barrie Bates was born on 17 October 1969 in the Welsh town of Merthyr Tydfil. In 2003, he made his TV debut at the UK Open. After being 5-0 too strong for Mark Whitworth in the second round, he went down 5-3 against Simon Whatley a round later.

It was not until 2006 that Bates made his presence felt again, and how! At the UK Open, he surprisingly reached the final after wins against Wayne Atwood, Wayne Jones, Roland Scholten, Alex Roy and Alan Tabern. His opponent there was none other than Raymond van Barneveld, who had recently switched from the BDO to the PDC and for whom it was his first major final with the PDC. Bates eventually lost 13-7.

That same year, he did win his first career Players Championship in Holland. That strong performance allowed him to make his debut at the PDC World Championship in 2007. As seventeenth series leader, however, he surprisingly went down immediately against Canadian Brian Cyr. Two years later, he realised his best performance at a World Championship. After wins against Felix McBrearty, Bill Davis and Mark Dudbrigde, Bates reached the quarter-finals. In those, he went down 5-2 against Mervyn King.

A year later, 'Champagne', as Bates was nicknamed, won the second and last Players Championship of his career in Crawley. That same year, he was also there with Wales at the first edition of the World Cup of Darts. He reached the final alongside Mark Webster, although he lost all his seven singles matches. In the final, Wales eventually lost to the Dutch team consisting of Van Barneveld and Co Stompé.

Afterwards, Bates started struggling with a back injury, lost his Tour Card and played mainly on the Challenge Tour. Until he rather surprisingly regained a Tour Card in early 2019. After two years, however, he lost it again, partly due to new injury problems. Since then, Bates still occasionally plays in the Modus Super Series, however, his career in the PDC seems to have come to a definite end.