Raymond van Barneveld sets up blockbuster last 16 tie with Luke Littler at the World Darts Championship
PDCFriday, 29 December 2023 at 17:48
Raymond van Barneveld has qualified for the last 16 at the World Darts Championship for the first time since 2018. After a difficult match, he won 4-1 in sets over Jim Williams.
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However, things did not go easy for a moment. Van Barneveld had great difficulty finding the trebles. In fact, in the entire match he threw 31 trebleless visits. Williams had plenty of chances to take advantage of the 56-year-old Dutchman's misses, but blew a lot of chances on the doubles himself
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In the first leg, Williams made a showcase by throwing a 135 finish against the Van Barneveld throw, but the set still went 3-2 to 'Barney'. That was after Williams had missed darts in all the legs Van Barneveld won, including five for the set. Eventually the fifth leg went to Van Barneveld with a 23-darter.
Also in the second set Van Barneveld struggled to throw high scores. Williams took advantage this time and by throwing out 76, 96 and 60 the second set went 3-2 to the Welshman.
Van Barneveld then began to grow into the match. It was not yet convincing, but the trebles were falling a little more often. An 11-darter gave him the lead at the beginning of the third set. With a 14-darter and a 96 finish, "Barney" took the third set 3-0.
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Van Barneveld then managed to break his Welsh opponent immediately with a 60 finish. Williams missed three chances for a break, after which Van Barneveld took a 2-0 lead in the fourth set via double 5. This set also went 3-0 to the Dutchman. Barney' then decided the match by taking the fifth set 3-2.
In the next round, the five-time world champion will take on English prodigy Luke Littler. The 16-year-old super talent already managed to win over Christian Kist, Andrew Gilding and Matt Campbell during the World Darts Championship.
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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- Need to see her take part in the womens tour. She'll break the inernet.medinabello08-09-2026
- 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
- I'd happily pay for a site free of Van der Voort's every squeak and utterance.StraightArrowNoBull19-08-2026
- I think you miss the point. It is just a poll if you are willing to pay for an ad-free site. The content stays free.SheGotLegs16-08-2026
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