Van Barneveld raises five grand for Food Bank in The Hague: 'Isn’t it nice for half an hour of darts?'

Raymond van Barneveld and Phil Taylor faced off online for the first time on Thursday evening. The classic was won 7-6 by Barney.

Van Barneveld and Taylor played against each other via an electronic soft tip board. The darts supplier Target's board featured a built-in webcam and microphone, allowing players to see each other.

The goal of the evening was to raise money to fight Coronavirus. Both players could do so by throwing 180 scores. Taylor hit ten, against five maximum scores for Van Barneveld. With this he earned five thousand pounds for a food bank in The Hague.

The Dutch darting legend was pleased with his tally but knew he could have hit more, he told Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad: “I missed a few more, unfortunately. I tried to throw 180 as many times as possible. In the end I had five, nice for half an hour of darts right?”

What Van Barneveld was disappointed with was that in the twelfth leg he missed double 12 for a nine-darter: "Looking back, damn it. I hit seven of the eight doubles. Just not the one, that would have been nice. I wouldn't be a sportsman if I didn't think it was a shame. A nine-darter in such a match would go around the world.”

Overall, the soft tip experiment was very satisfactory. Earlier, Barney indicated that he would not completely rule out a comeback in the soft tip side of the game. “I'm going to see what comes from this, but I'm open to it.”

https://youtu.be/He09d9Oi0f8

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