Van Barneveld reflects after completing comeback at Q-School: “This was really the hardest part of my life ever”

Raymond Van Barneveld completed a remarkable darting comeback at Q-School on Wednesday winning through the Order of Merit in Niedernhausen to rejoin the tour 14 months after initially retiring.

Van Barneveld will now get a chance to resume his career with the PDC Super Series his first task next week in Bolton before the UK Open.

Speaking to the PDC in claiming his win, he spoke of his renewed optimism and desire to get back to his best and also the experience of playing Q-School itself.

"I'm feeling really happy," said Van Barneveld to the PDC after securing his Tour Card.

"I was so desperate to do well today, because I had a bad run yesterday losing [in] the first round.

"I was really nervous, but when I won the second game against Benito van de Pas, it was [such] relief, that one single point.

"I accomplished that and I feel renewed and I feel really good now to be back on the tour, and hopefully next week I can show the world again what Raymond van Barneveld can do.

"I got a chance to put myself back on the map, thanks to my management, my team and my sponsors. We worked hard every single day, and I think because of that I got a Tour Card.

"I wanted to win the day of course, to be a winner, but there is a system to be number one, two, three or eight on the rankings and I accomplished that.

"I've played so many tournaments in my life, this was really the hardest part of my life ever.

"There were so many good names, amazing players and I was focusing on winning on the day, but that's really hard - winning seven games on the spin, you must be a really good player to do this.

"I was hoping to do that today because I was feeling really good, but I'm still happy to be back on the ProTour."

After completing the feat at Q-School, the targets are set and one in particular which is writing the wrongs from his last World Championship appearance where he had a dismal end to a brilliant career with defeat to Darin Young.

"The first target of this year was getting the Tour Card back, and then I want to qualify for the World Championship by the end of the year," he added. "That's my goal.

"I'm really desperate to work even harder right now and my sponsors, my management and my coach deserve that because of all the effort they put in.

"I'm a winner and I'm going to show them that they did the right thing, and I'm going to prove that I'm going to do well in the next year."