Raymond van Barneveld may be a PDC legend reaching the back end of his career. But the eye of the tiger still remains.
Barney is a bona fide master of his craft. The Dutchman won four BDO world titles and then another immediately after switching to the PDC. It has now been five years since his last televised title, and his spot as a Premier League ever-present is in doubt. But Van Barneveld always steps up at the Alexandra Palace. Four semi-finals and a quarter-final in the past six years is an impressive return for a man whose ranking is on the slide. As a natural winner, the Dutch icon wants more. "Even now I am already thinking about the Worlds and starting to prepare; maybe that's why I do well," Van Barneveld told . "I can't go to a tournament and just see what happens. I'm a five time world champion and when I go, I want to win it. "I want to be the world champion again and I still think I can but I see how hard I have to work now, I can't sit around, you don't get it for free, everyone is so talented." There have been questions raised about van Barneveld's commitment to darts. After pledging to put more effort in to qualify for European Tour events, the Den Haag-based thrower didn't attend a single European Tour tournament in 2018. He passionately rebuffed any doubts about his love of the game. "Sometimes I need to take some time and I need to spend that with my family, it's been important and why I've missed some tournaments," "The trouble with so many events is that quite a few are not ranked - if you put my prize money in non-ranked events together it would probably push me back into the top six in the world.
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- @UndartedWaters I totally agree with your thoughts! I totally respect Kirk but in this instance I was disappointed with his lack of crowd control. I even turned to my husband and said "Could you imagine this happening if Russ Bray was the referee tonight? At least there would have been a crowd admonishment- Ladies and Gentleman please." I so felt for Mike DeDecker...MamaVenus15-11-2024
- Many fans had a sour taste in their mouth by the end of this match. Mike was cruising to victory, playing beautiful darts, when the whistling started in earnest, particularly on his doubles. You could see in Mike's face that it was really affecting his concentration. The referee should have asked for order, just to show that the whistling is unacceptable, and Luke Littler could also have done his part to quieten down the crowd instead of "taking full advantage.:" I put that down to his age though. He needs some good advice on this from his management team and/or more seasoned players. It's got to be about who's best on the night, not who is being harassed by the crowd. Luke Littler played well to get back into the game and win, but it was a hollow victory. If he goes on to win the tournament, that triumph too will be tainted because of this match.
UndartedWaters15-11-2024 - Agree. Van der voort will be the one taking a break when he loses his tour card. Everyone saying about how bad Wright's last 18 months have been, and in that time he's won several Euro tours and the European Championships.Matilda6215-11-2024
- When Littler has at least five ranking Majors he’s in the discussion, until then, forget it.Mysstree14-11-2024
- This is the difference between other players and Phil Taylor. Phil would be completely motivated even before his walk on and didn't need anything else to do so.richieburnettrocks14-11-2024