"The little devil was briefly back": Van Barneveld frustrated after Price thrashing at PDC World Darts Championship

Raymond van Barneveld could not pull off another shock against Gerwyn Price at the World Darts Championship on Tuesday night. In the third round, 'Barney' lost 4-0 in sets.

After the match, Van Barneveld refused to speak to the press. A day later, he did agree to speak to the Algemeen Dagblad. ''I still can't explain it all. The little devil was back for a while,'' was his first reaction.

''Of course there is no shame in losing to the world number one, I know that too. But not with 4-0. I trained hard over Christmas and the darts fell perfectly. Then you don't see this coming. Before my first match I was upset all day because of that Chinese food and then I win 3-1. Now I started full of confidence and it will be nothing. Put it this way. It actually started with the throw on the bull for who could start the match. He threw single bull, but I outside it.''

The Hague native then pointed to the statistics of both players, which he said were not far apart. ''I throw 100-plus 20 times, he 25 times; I throw 140-plus 11 times, he seven times; I throw 180 five times, he six times. And when throwing out, I have a better percentage than him, but it has to be said I didn't get many chances to do so. I also hit 147 and 125, so I didn't do badly. But there is a rock-hard 4-0. That hurts.''