BARNEY’S Q TO FIGHT IN STAR WARS
REJUVENATED Raymond van Barneveld is back from the “dark side” after retiring in a strop which turned him “from Luke Skywalker into Darth Vader”.
At 53, a year older than his old rival Phil Taylor (right) when the ‘Power’ won the last of his 16 world titles, Barney will launch his own version of Star Wars next week – trying to win back his Tour card.
Just 14 months after quitting the Professional Darts Corporation circuit, Van Barneveld will go to Q School at Niedernhausen in Germany to reboot his career from scratch.
It means a five-times world champion will be battling young hustlers in the scramble for the last places on the 2021 Tour.
Barney shuffled out of Alexandra Palace in December 2019, claiming he would “hate myself for the rest of my life” after crashing out of the World Championship against unfancied American Darin Young.
But amid the pitfalls of divorce, family rifts and jumping off the PDC hamster wheel, retirement wasn’t everything he hoped.
He admitted: “I started to look back in my career and sometimes there were really emotional moments with tears in my eyes.
“Kissing my grandson during the walk-on in the Premier League in Rotterdam, giving him my necklace – I couldn’t handle it.
“Everywhere people came up to me... they all love Barney! Wow, do I miss this or what?
“I was thinking, ‘Why did I turn to the dark side?’ I went from Luke Skywalker to Darth Vader. This is wrong. I became depressed, a nightmare for players, always down, always talking bad about myself.
“Now I feel good, I feel reborn, I have my focus back. I cannot wait to start playing darts again.” Thanks to his English girlfriend Julia (both above), Barney Reloaded has his enthusiasm for life and for competition back. He’ll need it. Q School is a cut-throat last chance saloon for players desperate to join the PDC circus.
And even if he makes it, Barney will need to stockpile ranking points like gold at Fort Knox to qualify for major tournaments.
But he insisted: “There is no if about my Tour card. I will get it – I don’t think about anything else.”