Raymond van Barneveld

Explore about the Famous Darts Player Raymond van Barneveld, who was born in Netherlands on April 20, 1967. Analyze Raymond van Barneveld’s net worth, age, bio, birthday, dating, height-weight, wiki. Investigate who is Raymond van Barneveld dating now? Look into this article to know how old is Raymond van Barneveld?

Raymond van Barneveld Biography

Professional darts player and five time world champion, he is a member of the Professional Darts Corporation. Throughout much of 2008, he was the #1 ranked darts player in the world. His skills earned him a knighthood from Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.

He played his first darts game in 1984. However, it wasn’t until 1995 that he made his first international success.

In 2007, his biography titled Barney: The Story of a Darts Legend was published by Arnoult Verzel.

He is a citizen of The Hague, Netherlands.

He has competed against darts rival Phil Taylor.

Raymond van Barneveld (born 20 April 1967) is a retired Dutch professional darts player. Nicknamed Barney, although originally known as The Man, he is one of the most successful darts players in history. Van Barneveld is a five-time World Darts Champion (four-time BDO and one-time PDC), a two-time UK Open Champion and a former winner of the Las Vegas Desert Classic, the Grand Slam of Darts and the Premier League. He is also a twice-winner of the World Masters and the World Darts Trophy, and a three-time winner of the International Darts League and the WDF World Cup Singles event.

Van Barneveld began participating in competitive events around the Netherlands since 1984 when he was 17 years old. During that year he won his first tournament, which was the Rotterdam Open. From there onwards, Van Barneveld was considered among his compatriots as a future potential. In the following years he joined the international darts circuit, achieving further success, finishing runner-up in the 1987 Belgian Open and reaching the semi-finals in the 1988 Dutch Open. In September 1990 he participated in the WDF Europe Cup singles where he lost in the quarter-finals to Phil Taylor.

He started to make some progress on the British Darts Organisation circuit in the early 1990s, 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.

Van Barneveld’s World Championship debut was at the 1991 Embassy World Championship at the Lakeside Country Club. His debut at the World Championship however was short-lived as he was comfortably beaten 3–0 by Keith Sullivan of Australia.

He failed to qualify for the World Championship in 1992, but returned to Lakeside in 1993, which would be the last time that a unified World Championship would be staged. Van Barneveld served notice of his potential when he hit a 170 checkout to go 2 sets to 1 in front against John Lowe during their second round match, but Lowe eventually won the match 3–2. Lowe went on to win the 1993 World Championship. Shortly after the 1993 World Final, the top players in the World Darts Council (WDC, now the PDC) were suspended and later banned from BDO tournaments.

Van Barneveld continued to make progress in the BDO Open events in 1994 after the split. Despite failing to qualify for the 1994 BDO World Championship, he reached the quarter-finals of both Dutch Open and Berlin Open, the semi-final at the Belgium Open and his first and only final in a major in 1994, at the Finnish Open where he lost to Andy Fordham.

Van Barneveld lives in The Hague with his wife Sylvia whom he married in 1995. They have three children: a son, Mike (born 1989) and daughters Daisy (born 1992) and Patty (born 1994). In October 2009, during the World Grand Prix tournament in Ireland, Van Barneveld revealed that he had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes that summer, and that it can affect his vision if his blood sugar level is too high. He is a supporter of Ado Den Haag.

He continued his good run of form into the 1995 World Championship by beating Les Wallace, Dave Askew, Colin Monk and Martin Adams to reach his first World Final. Van Barneveld’s remarkable run to the final would eventually come to an end as he was defeated 6–3 by Welshman Richie Burnett.

After second round exits in 1996 and 1997 Championships, Van Barneveld claimed his first world title in the 1998 World Championship in a World Final grudge match meeting against Richie Burnett. This time it was Van Barneveld who was the victor, edging Burnett 6–5 in an epic contest which is often considered to be one of the greatest finals of all time having reached 5–5 in sets Van Barneveld finally took the title by winning the final set 4–2 in legs on double 8.

He successfully defended the trophy the year later by the same winning margin as the previous year, this time against Ronnie Baxter. This made him only the second player in the tournament’s history to have launched a successful defence of his title; the other being Eric Bristow. Martin Adams and Glen Durrant would later also achieve this feat. In November 1999, Van Barneveld, the then 2-time reigning Lakeside World Champion, took on Phil Taylor, the then 7-time World Champion and reigning PDC world champion, at the Wembley Conference Centre. It was a legs match with a 60-minute clock ticking down to zero, with a short break at around the half-way stage. Van Barneveld lost the match 21–10.

Van Barneveld exited in the first round of the World Championships in 2000, crashing out to Chris Mason, who averaged 100 and ended Van Barneveld’s hopes of a hat-trick of titles, as well as avenging a semi final loss from the previous year.

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 Göran 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.

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

Van Barneveld’s 2004 campaign ended in the semi-finals, when Andy Fordham recovered from being 3–0 and 4–2 behind, to beat Van Barneveld 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.

In September 2006, soon after losing to 17 year old sensation Michael van Gerwen in the first round of the 2006 World Darts Trophy, Van Barneveld acknowledged that he needed to work on his finishing throws, and he made alterations to his game. He changed his darts and began using the “stacking” technique used by Taylor. The darts used were a gram lighter than his old ones and cost the equivalent of £1 from a local store in the Netherlands. Although he played well in the 2006 World Grand Prix, he lost to Phil Taylor in the second round.

His PDC debut came in the 2006 Premier League competition. He won his first match convincingly 8–1 against Baxter. On 23 March, he hit his first televised nine dart finish and faced Taylor later in the same night, fighting back for a 7–7 draw. The re-match came on Van 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.

After playing in the BDO for twenty 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. 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.

Van Barneveld reached his sixth final in 2006, and was aiming to equal 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.

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

Taylor and Van Barneveld 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. From three sets down, Van Barneveld came back to beat Taylor 7–6 in the sudden death leg in one of the greatest darts matches of all time to match Bristow’s record of five world titles. In February 2007, Van Barneveld 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 also continued away from the cameras.

2008 proved to be Van Barneveld’s most barren year thus far in the PDC in terms of success, with him not winning a major tournament. 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 US Open, the Las Vegas Desert Classic by Alan Tabern and in the semi-finals of the UK Open by Gary Mawson, after having defeated rival Taylor by 10 legs to 9 a round earlier. He was also defeated in the quarter finals of the World Matchplay by Wayne Mardle, despite leading 12 legs to 7 at one stage. However, Van Barneveld did regain some form in the World Grand Prix reaching the final of the tournament, before being defeated by Taylor by 6 sets to 2. He also suffered a quarter-final embarrassment at the hands of Lewis in the quarter-finals of the inaugural European Darts Championship in November losing by 9 legs to 2.

From January to June 2008, he was the world’s number one ranked player. His victory over Phil Taylor in the 2007 PDC World Championship final, added to his four previous BDO World Championships brought him level with Eric Bristow as a five-time world champion; he is one of only three players in darts history to achieve this. He is, along with Michael van Gerwen, one of the most successful Dutch darts players to date, and has had a significant effect in raising the popularity of darts in the Netherlands. He is naturally left-handed but throws darts with his right hand.

In January 2009, in the quarter-finals of the 2009 PDC World Darts Championship, Van Barneveld became the first player in professional darts to hit a nine darter at the PDC World Darts Championship.

On 28 December 2009, he hit another nine-darter in the second round of the PDC World Championship against Brendan Dolan, becoming the first player to hit two nine-dart finishes in the PDC World Championship. He went on to reach the semi finals before losing 6–5 to Simon Whitlock. He also lost the third-place play-off 10–8 in legs to Mark Webster.

After his quarter final World Matchplay defeat by Terry Jenkins, Van Barneveld took another sabbatical from darts. He declined entries for the Championship of Darts and the South African Masters. There was speculation Van Barneveld was considering retiring from the sport, however he stated after his first round win in the 2009 World Grand Prix over Alan Tabern that he was suffering from diabetes and his absence was in order to get fit and healthy and going to the gym. He also attributed the diabetes towards his form in major tournaments. Van Barneveld reached the World Grand Prix final for the second successive year, but again lost to Taylor, this time by 6 sets to 3.

After his quarter final World Matchplay defeat by Terry Jenkins, Van Barneveld took another sabbatical from darts. He declined entries for the Championship of Darts and the South African Masters. There was speculation Van Barneveld was considering retiring from the sport, however he stated after his first round win in the 2009 World Grand Prix over Alan Tabern that he was suffering from diabetes and his absence was in order to get fit and healthy and going to the gym. He also attributed the diabetes towards his form in major tournaments. Van Barneveld reached the World Grand Prix final for the second successive year, but again lost to Taylor, this time by 6 sets to 3.

Van Barneveld threw his fourth nine dart finish in the Blue Square UK Open West Midlands Regional on 29 March 2009 in the third round against Kirk Shepherd. Barney only earned £400 for this as Mervyn King snapped up the £4,000 bonus on 28 March 2009 at the Coventry Players Championship with a nine dart finish.

Van Barneveld threw another televised nine dart finish in the 2009 PDC World Darts Championship in his quarter-final match against fellow Dutchman Klaasen on 2 January 2009. Van Barneveld hit two maximum 180s before nailing treble 20, treble 19 and double 12 to complete his nine-darter in the second leg of the sixth set. The feat earned Van Barneveld £20,000 – the bonus had not been won since Taylor’s nine-darter at the UK Open against Jamie Harvey – as he became the first player to throw a perfect leg in the PDC World Championship. Van Barneveld went on to win the match 5–1, with a three-dart 161 finish, and then won his semi-final against Wade. However, he suffered a heavy 7–1 defeat by Taylor in the final. As a result of his failure to defend the £100,000 he won at the 2007 World Championship (his runner-up position earned him £60,000) he dropped from 2nd to 3rd in the PDC Order of Merit.

Van Barneveld returned to top form at the 2010 World Matchplay. In the first round against Denis Ovens on 17 July 2010, Van Barneveld hit another nine-darter. After then defeating Alan Tabern and Co Stompé, Van Barneveld defeated former World Matchplay champion, James Wade, by 17–8 in a very impressive semi final performance. In a high quality final, Phil Taylor defeated Van Barneveld 18–12.

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