Raymond van Barneveld (born 20 April 1967) is a Dutch professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he was ranked world number one from January 2008 to June 2008. Nicknamed "Barney", he is widely regarded as one of the sport's greatest ever players and is credited with the sport's rise in popularity in the Netherlands. He is a five-time world champion, with four BDO and one PDC world titles, one of only three players to achieve this.
In addition to his five world titles, van Barneveld is also a two-time UK Open champion, and a former winner of the Las Vegas Desert Classic, the Grand Slam and the Premier League. He is also a two-time World Masters winner, and a former World Darts Trophy champion. He is a three-time winner of both the International Darts League, the Dutch Open, and the WDF World Cup singles event. van Barneveld has won the PDC World Cup of Darts four times and the WDF World Cup Pairs once. Naturally left-handed, van Barneveld throws with his right hand.
In November 2018, van Barneveld announced his intention to retire from darts after the 2020 PDC World Darts Championship. On 28 March 2019, following a 7–1 defeat to Michael van Gerwen in his final Premier League match, he announced his retirement with immediate effect, but reversed his decision the following day. He retired again following his first-round exit at the 2020 World Championship. In February 2021, 14 months after retiring, he regained his professional tour card after qualifying at 2021 PDC Qualifying School.
BDO career 1984–1990: Early career 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 reaching the semi-finals of 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.
1991–1997: First World final Van Barneveld's World Championship debut was at the 1991 Embassy World Championship at the Lakeside Country Club, however had little impact losing 3–0 in the last 32, to Keith Sullivan of Australia. 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.
He 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 came back to win the match 3–2, and go on to win the title. 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.
In 1994, he reached the quarter-finals of both Dutch Open and Berlin Open, the semi-final at the Belgium Open and his first and the Finnish Open, where he lost to Andy Fordham. 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 run to the final would eventually come to an end as he was defeated 6–3 by Welshman Richie Burnett.
1998–2006: Four World titles 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 Van Barneveld was the victor, edging Burnett 6–5 in a game 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 halfway 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.
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. 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.
Van Barneveld reached his sixth final in 2006, and was aiming to equal Bristow's record of five BDO world titles. However, his opponent, 21-year-old fellow countryman Jelle Klaasen, 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 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.
PDC career Switch to PDC 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.Van Barneveld's reasons for switching to PDC Having started from scratch in the rankings, within twelve months he had reached world number two and became World Champion.
2006 season: UK Open title
His PDC debut came in the 2006 Premier League competition. He won his first match 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 rematch came on Van Barneveld's 39th birthday, but this time Taylor won the deciding leg for an 8–6 victory. Van Barneveld lost in a surprise 11–3 semi-final defeat in the Premier League to fellow Dutchman Roland Scholten.
Van Barneveld then started a 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 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.
In September 2006, soon after losing to 17-year-old 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.
2007 season: 5th World title
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.
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 finished second but lost an error-filled encounter 11–10 to Terry Jenkins in the semi-final, having come from 6–10 behind and missed five darts to reach the final.
Van Barneveld made amends for his Premier League campaign 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 Lloyd 11–4 in the semi-final and Van der Voort in the final 16–8. In doing this, Van 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. Van Barneveld's dream of winning the five major ranking PDC tournament titles in 2007 – the World Championship, UK Open, Las Vegas Desert Classic, World Matchplay and the World Grand Prix ended 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 continued to grow since his switch. In addition to his five major titles (the World Championship, two UK Open Championships, the Vegas Desert Classic, and the Masters of Darts) – he has added eleven non-televised PDC Pro Tour titles (five UK Open Regionals and six Players Championships).
2008 season 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 comfortably, although he nearly had to retire during his second-round match due to breathing problems. He was defeated by Kevin Painter in the 3rd round by 4 sets to 2. Following this, 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 then lost to Lewis in the quarter-finals of the inaugural European Darts Championship in November losing by 9 legs to 2.
2009 season: 8th World final Van Barneveld threw another televised Nine-dart finish in the 2009 World 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.