Raymond van Barneveld

Darts player infobox
playername = Raymond van Barneveld


fullname = Raymond van Barneveld
nickname = Barney, The Man
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1967|4|20
cityofbirth = The Hague
countryofbirth = The Netherlands
hometown = The Hague
homecountry = The Netherlands
since = 1984
darts = 25g Grand Slam "Barney Grip"
music = Eye of the Tiger (1982) by Survivor
BDO = 1990 - Jan 2006
PDC = Feb 2006 -
currentrank = 2 (July 2008)
BDO World = Winner 1998, 1999, 2003, 2005
World Masters = Winner 2001, 2005
World Darts Trophy = Winner 2003, 2004
Int. Darts League = Winner 2003, 2004, 2006
PDC World = Winner 2007
Matchplay = QF 2007, 2008
Grand Prix = SF 2007
UK Open = Winner 2006, 2007
Vegas = Winner 2007
Grand Slam = Second Round 2007
Premier League = SF 2006, 2007, 2008
US Open = RU 2007
resultyears = 2007
2007
1995, 2001, 2003, 2004
1999
2001, 2004, 2006
2002
1995, 2004
1996, 1999
1997
1997
1998
1998, 2002, 2003
2000
2004
2006
2006, 2007
2006
2007
2006
2007
2007
2007
2007
2008
tournament = Masters of Darts
World Darts Challenge
Doeland Grand Masters
Brandstaff Masters
Dutch Open
IDPA Masters
Finland Open
Belgium Open
Norway Open
Denmark Open
British Open
Sweden Open
Swiss Open
N.Ireland Open
UK Open Regional (M)
UK Open Regional flagicon|IRL IR
UK Open Regional flagicon|SCO SC
UK Open Regional (NE)
Players Ch'ship flagicon|Isle of WightIW
Players Ch'ship flagicon|Gibraltar GI
Players Ch'ship flagicon|Germany DE
Players Ch'ship flagicon|Nevada LV
Players Ch'ship flagicon|Wales WAL
Players Ch'ship flagicon|Netherlands
achievement = 1997, 1998 Haagse Sportprijs
1998 BDO Personality Award
1998, 1999 Haaglanden Sportprijs
1999 Major citizen of The Hague
1999 Named in the Order of Orange-Nassau
2002 European Darts Ch'ships Mechelen, 9-dart finish
2003 Swiss Open, 9-dart finish
2003 I.D.P.A. Leighton Rees Men's Player of the Year Award
2004 Haagse Publieksprijs
2006 Premier League of Darts, 9-dart finish
2006 Best Newcomer, PDC Awards
2006 Fans' Player of the Year, PDC Awards
2007 PartyPoker.net German Darts Championship, 9-dart finish
2008 Became PDC World number 1
2008 Best Floor Player, PDC Awards
updated = July 27, 2008

Raymond van Barneveld (born April 20 1967 in The Hague, Netherlands), nickname Barney and The Man, is a professional darts player. He is a five time World Darts Champion, two time UK Open Champion and the Las Vegas Desert Classic Champion. From January to June 2008, he was the PDC world number one ranked player.

His victory in the 2007 final, added to his four previous BDO Championships brought him level with Eric Bristow as a five-time world champion. He is the most successful Dutch darts player ever, and has a significant effect in putting the game of darts on the map in The Netherlands.

BDO career

Barneveld's first World Championship appearance came in 1991 playing in the Embassy World Championship at the Lakeside Country Club, but his first round match ended in a 0-3 defeat to Australian Keith Sullivan.

He started to make some progress on the British Darts Organisation circuit, reaching the quarter-finals of the Belgian Open in September 1990 and the German Open in March 1991. His first semi-final came at the Swiss Open in June 1991.

He failed to qualify for the World Championship in 1992, but made it back to Lakeside in 1993, which would be the last time that a unified World Championship would be staged. Barneveld lost in a close match 2-3 to John Lowe, who would go on to win the championship. Shortly after the 1993 World Final, the top players in the game at the time formed the World Darts Council (WDC, now the PDC) and left the BDO.

Barneveld continued to make progress in the BDO Open events in 1994 after the split, reaching the quarter-finals at the Dutch Open and Berlin Open, the semi-final at the Belgium Open and his first final, at the Finnish Open where he lost to Andy Fordham.

He continued his good run of form into the 1995 World Championship by putting out Les Wallace, Dave Askew, Colin Monk and Martin Adams to reach his first World Final. But it ended in defeat 3-6 to Welshman Richie Burnett.

After second round defeats in 1996 and 1997, the former postman took his first world title in 1998 by beating Richie Burnett in a repeat of the 1995 final. This match however is often listed amongst the greatest of all-time having reached 5-5 in sets before Barneveld took the deciding set 4-2 in legs.

He successfully defended the trophy one year later by the same winning margin, this time against Ronnie Baxter of England. He is only the second player in the tournament's history to have launched a successful defence of his title; the other being Eric Bristow.

His run of success ended in the first round in 2000, crashing out to Chris Mason, who averaged 100 and ended Barneveld's hopes of a hat-trick of titles.

Barneveld lost in the quarter-finals in 2001 (4-5 to Ted Hankey) and 2002 (3-5 to Mervyn King) before returning to the final in 2003. He clinched his third world title by beating Richie Davies of Wales 6-3.

His 2004 campaign ended in the semi-finals, when Andy Fordham beat him 5-4 in another memorable match.

A fourth title followed in 2005. He never dropped a set in the first three rounds as he beat Gary Anderson, Mike Veitch and Vincent van der Voort. A 5-3 semi-final win over Darryl Fitton and 6-2 triumph over Martin Adams of England) in the final brought him that fourth title.

Barneveld reached his sixth final in 2006, and was aiming to equal Eric Bristow's record of five BDO world titles. On this occasion however, his hopes were ended by 21 year-old fellow countryman Jelle Klaasen who prevailed 7-5.

He has also won the prestigious Winmau World Masters title twice: once in 2001 when he recorded a win in the final over Jarkko Komula of Finland and again in 2005 when he beat Goran Klemme in the final. Other major darts tournaments that he has won at least twice include The World Darts Trophy and The International Darts League.

PDC career

After playing in the BDO for fifteen years, winning four World Championships, van Barneveld announced his move from the BDO to the PDC on 15 February, 2006. He cited his reasons as wanting a greater challenge, and regularly playing against players like Phil Taylor [ [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2006/12/19/somysp19.xml Barneveld's reasons for switching to PDC] ] . He had an incredible first year in the PDC, having started from scratch in the rankings. Within twelve months he had reached World number two and became World Champion.

His PDC debut came in the 2006 Premier League competition. He won his first match convincingly 8-1 against Ronnie Baxter. On March 23 he hit his first televised nine dart finish and faced Phil Taylor later in the same night, fighting back for a 7-7 draw. The re-match came on Barneveld's 39th birthday, but this time Taylor won the deciding leg for an 8-6 victory. Van Barneveld suffered a surprise 11-3 semi-final defeat in the Premier League to fellow Dutchman Roland Scholten.

Van Barneveld then started a very successful run with a 13-5 final victory over Colin Lloyd in the final of the International Darts League for his 11th BDO Grand Slam tournament. He won his first major PDC title in June by beating Barrie Bates in the final of the UK Open at the Reebok Stadium, Bolton. Earlier in the day, he beat Phil Taylor in the quarter-finals, accomplishing one of his dreams which he announced after switching to the PDC. Van Barneveld beat Taylor again just weeks later in the semi-finals of the 2006 Las Vegas Desert Classic. He lost 6-3 to Canadian John Part in the final the following day.

Soon after this Barneveld made alterations to his game, he changed darts and began using the "stacking" technique used by Phil Taylor. The darts used were a gram lighter than his old ones and cost the equivalent of £1 from a local store in Holland.

After losing in the first round of the 2006 Bavaria World Trophy to rising talent Michael van Gerwen, van Barneveld acknowledged that he needed to work on his finishing throws. Although he played well in the Sky Bet World Grand Prix, he lost to Phil Taylor in the second round.

Van Barneveld and Taylor met again in the 2007 PDC World Championship final, in a match which Taylor later described as the best final he had been involved in. Van Barneveld came back from 3 sets down to beat Taylor 7-6 in the sudden death leg in one of the greatest darts matches of all time to match Eric Bristow's record of five world titles. In February 2007 Raymond won the 2007 Masters of Darts tournament by beating Peter Manley 7-0 in sets in the final with a 107 three dart average. His success has also continued away from the cameras.

In the 2007 Premier League Darts, he never fared as well as he did in 2006, losing to Phil Taylor twice, Dennis Priestley and Colin Lloyd in the group section. He did however manage to finish second but lost an exciting but error filled encounter 10-11 to Terry Jenkins in the semi-final.

Barneveld made amends for his disappointing Premier League campaign however by inflicting one of Taylor's heaviest defeats (11-4) in the quarter-final of the 2007 UK Open and went on to successfully defend his title beating Colin Lloyd 11-4 in the semi-final and Vincent van der Voort in the final 16-8. In doing this, Barneveld became the first person to successfully defend the UK Open crown. A month later, he continued his surge of major titles by beating Terry Jenkins 13 legs to 6 in the final of the 2007 Las Vegas Desert Classic. Barneveld's dream of winning the five major PDC tournament titles in 2007- the World Championship, UK Open, Las Vegas Desert Classic, World Matchplay and the World Grand Prix- ended on Thursday 26th July, when he was defeated by Adrian Lewis 16 legs to 14 in the quarter finals of the World Matchplay in Blackpool.

His haul of titles in the PDC has continued to grow since his switch. In addition to his four major titles (the World Championship, two UK Open Championships and the Vegas Desert Classic) - he has added eleven non-televised PDC Pro Tour titles (five UK Open Regionals and six Players Championships).

2008 is proving to be Barneveld's most barren year thus far in the P.D.C. in terms of success. His defence of the World Championship crown was seriously thwarted by a bout of flu. He managed to win his first two matches quite comfortably, although nearly had to retire during his 2nd round match due to breathing problems. He was defeated by Kevin Painter in the 3rd round by 4 sets to 2. Following his disappointment, he reached the semi-finals of the 2008 Premier League Darts, but was defeated for the third consecutive year at this stage of the tournament, defeated by James Wade. He was also knocked out of the early stages of the U.S. Open, the Las Vegas Desert Classic by Alan Tabern and in the semi-finals of the U.K. Open by Gary Mawson, after having defeated rival Phil Taylor by 10 legs to 9 a round earlier. He was also defeated in the quarter finals of the World Matchplay by Wayne Mardle.

World Championship Results

BDO
* 1991: First Round (lost to Keith Sullivan 0-3)
* 1992: "Did not qualify"
* 1993: Second Round (lost to John Lowe 2-3)
* 1994: "Did not qualify"
* 1995: Runner-Up (lost to Richie Burnett 3-6)
* 1996: Second Round (lost to Matt Clark 1-3)
* 1997: Second Round (lost to Les Wallace 2-3)
* 1998: Winner (beat Richie Burnett 6-5)
* 1999: Winner (beat Ronnie Baxter 6-5)
* 2000: First Round (lost to Chris Mason 1-3)
* 2001: Quarter-Finals (lost to Ted Hankey 4-5)
* 2002: Quarter-Finals (lost to Mervyn King 3-5)
* 2003: Winner (beat Ritchie Davies 6-3)
* 2004: Semi-Finals (lost to Andy Fordham 4-5)
* 2005: Winner (beat Martin Adams 6-2)
* 2006: Runner-Up (lost to Jelle Klaasen 5-7)

PDC
* 2007: Winner (beat Phil Taylor 7-6)
* 2008: Third Round (lost to Kevin Painter 2-4)

Barney Army

Barneveld now gets chants of 'Barney Army', which is a play on the England cricket team's nickname 'Barmy Army' as a result of the Dutchman's popularity since he joined the PDC in early 2006 and England's disappointing performances in the 2006/07 Ashes.

References

External links

* [http://barney.nl.res4.mijnpreview.com/ Raymond van Barneveld web site] flagicon|NED
* [http://www.planetdarts.tv?WT.mc_id=wiki Official PDC site - watch Barneveld online]
* [http://youtube.com/watch?v=EDe8nT2HC_8 Ray Barneveld 1998, 99', 03' and 05' world champs wins]
* [http://www.pdcworldchampionship.co.uk/index.php?page_id=32 Profile On PDC News]
* [http://www.darts1.de/interviews/barneveld1e.php Interview on darts1.de]