Barney is Back

A legend of the oche Raymond van Barneveld has secured a PDC Tour Card at European Qualifying School in Niedernhausen. Van Barneveld returns to the tour after retiring following the 2019 World Championships.

The 53 year old, who is a five time World Champion won through the first stage of Qualifying School last week as reported by PDC.tv. The results meant he has enough ranking points to gain a tour card for 2021/2022. Fans of the Dutchman can look forward to seeing him in the Super Series in Bolton next week and then the UK open from March 5th.

Van Barneveld opened up to PDC.tv about how he felt his final year in the sport was a "disaster".

"Problems with divorce. Problems with my head. Problems with my children. I couldn’t play darts any more, the thing in my head was to give up.

"Jaco [ex-manager] told me it was the best thing to do and to be fair, I was never ever keen to do this.

“At the time when Jaco told me this at the Grand Prix in Ireland, I was really emotional. After that he just said ‘Ray, say goodbye to the fans and make it a nice year’.

“But every time when I walked off that stage I felt ashamed. I can do more than this. I am better than this. I’m going to handle this.

“Even then on the World Championship night against Darin Young, I was averaging 96/97 and he got 87 or something and beat me 3-1.

“That moment was really the hardest moment in my life. I really felt the floor sinking below me. I was thinking wow after all I’ve done for myself, my family and all my fans. Is this the way I need to say goodbye? That felt horrible."

Barney began his pro career in the BDO (British Darts Organisation) winning the BDO World Championship four times in 1998, 1999, 2003, and 2005. He made the switch to the PDC in 2007 and won the PDC World Championship that year. He beat Phil Taylor in a thrilling final by 7 sets to 6.

It was a good year for him as he also won the UK Open, Masters of Darts and Las Vegas Desert Classic. His next tournament win would come in 2012 when he won the Grand Slam of Darts. He would also win the 2014 Premier League.

In 2019 his farewell year, failed to live up to the high standards of the player. Failing to qualify for serval events his best performance was a quarter final in the Players Championships.

Darts fans can now look forward to seeing Van Barneveld back on the oche.