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Raymond van Barneveld
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Raymond van Barneveld | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Personal information | ||
| Full name | Raymond van Barneveld | |
| Nickname | Barney, The Man | |
| Date of birth | April 20, 1967 (age 39) | |
| Place of birth | The Hague, The Netherlands | |
| Home town | The Hague, The Netherlands | |
| Darts information | ||
| Playing darts since | 1984 | |
| Darts | Triple B. Ghost-Grip 25 gr., 90% Tungsten | |
| Organisation | ||
| BDO | 1990 to 2006 | |
| PDC | since February 2006 | |
| Current World Ranking | 2 | |
| BDO Grand Slam Events - Best Performances | ||
| World Ch'ship | Winner 1998, 1999, 2003, 2005 | |
| World Masters | Winner 2001, 2005 | |
| World Darts Trophy | Winner 2003, 2004 | |
| Int. Darts League | Winner 2003, 2004, 2006 | |
| PDC Televised Events - Best Performances | ||
| World Ch'ship | Winner 2007 | |
| World Matchplay | Did not qualify 2006 | |
| World Grand Prix | 2nd Rd 2006 | |
| UK Open | Winner 2006 | |
| Desert Classic | Runner-up 2006 | |
| Premier League | SF 2006 | |
| Other Tournament Wins | ||
| Tournament | Years | |
| Masters of Darts Doeland Grand Masters |
2007 1995, 2001, 2003, 2004 |
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| Other Achievements | ||
| 1997, 1998 Haagse Sportprijs 1998 BDO Personality Award |
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Raymond van Barneveld (born April 20, 1967 in The Hague, Netherlands), nickname Barney and The Man, is a professional darts player. He is the current PDC World Darts Champion.
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 single-handedly put the game of darts on the map in The Netherlands.
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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 gone to a sudden death leg when the match score reached 5-5 in sets and 5-5 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.
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[1]. 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.
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 would meet 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. Van Barneveld has now matched Eric Bristow's record of five world titles. In Feburary 2007 Raymond won the 2007 Masters of Darts tournament by beating Peter Manley 7-0 in sets in the final. His success has also continued away from the cameras. In addition to three major non-televised tournament wins in 2006, he's added three more titles in PDC Pro Tour events in 2007.
Barneveld now gets chants 'Barny Army', which is a play on the cricket team's nickname 'Barmy Army' as a result of the Dutchman's popularity since he joined the PDC in early 2006.
