FAIRY-TAYL ENDING Barney’s Powered up for final fling
RAYMOND VAN BARNEVELD will draw on a pep talk from old rival Phil Taylor to ensure tonight’s emotional appearance at Alexandra Palace doesn’t become the last post on a legend’s career.
The five-time world champion mobilises his adoring ‘Barney Army’ for his first-round tie against Darin Young at the William Hill World Championship.
If he beats the American underdog known as ‘Big Daddy,’ Barney can dare to dream of a fitting farewell.
But long-time rival Taylor granted him an audience at darts specialists Target in Essex and said: “If Barney walks on that stage with his head full of thoughts about retiring, he’ll come unstuck.
“He needs to clear his mind and approach it as if it was his first worlds.
“If he does that, he’s still young enough and he’s still got the game to beat anybody.
“I was 52 when I won my last world title, the same age as Raymond now. I would love it if he went all the way to the final.”
It is probably asking too much for Van Barneveld to bow out of his final tournament before retirement in triumph.
The last major televised event he won was the Premier League in 2014.
But the Dutchman said: “If I had the chance, I would do it all again. I will never regret anything.
“Even now, I have to pinch myself, ‘Wow, what happened to the guy from the post, sitting on his bike every day to deliver the mail, who had his visions and dreams?’
“It was so hard sometimes. One day I won a competition in Holland, and the next day I was back on the bike.
“I had to keep telling myself, ‘Ray, I don’t want this, I want to be a professional darts player.’
“Fortunately I believed in myself, I believed in my dreams, and my story shows that possible.
“But spending weekends in Barnsley or Wigan at floor tournaments doesn’t really do it for me. You have to be at the venue by 9.30am and you could be knocked out by lunchtime.
“Twenty minutes later, you are lying on your bed at a Premier Inn wondering, ‘What the hell am I doing this for?’
“I’m desperate, I’m sinking. The passion has gone, I cannot enjoy it if you believe anything is
DAVE CHISNALL has retreated into his man cave to tune up for another crack at landing his first major title.
‘Chizzy’ is one of the great nearly-men of darts, losing all six televised finals he has reached.
But after a year of hard graft to climb back into the world’s top 10, Chisnall, who starts his Ally Pally campaign on Thursday, said: “I just knew I had to put the time in if I want to get back up the rankings – and I have done.
“The important thing was to get back in the shed, or the hut, or whatever you want to call it, in the garden.
“It’s my man cave and it keeps me quiet – no trouble, no hassle.”
Darius Labanauskas v Matthew Edgar (1st round) Ryan Meikle v Yuki Yamada (1st round) Luke Woodhouse v Paul Lim (1st round) Jermaine Wattimena v Humphries/Petersen (2nd round) Mark McGeeney v Matt Campbell (1st round) Jamie Hughes v Zoran Lerchbacher (1st round) Raymond van Barneveld v Darin Young (1st round) Rob Cross v Huybrechts/ Nentjes (2nd round)
when I am losing.” How would he like to be remembered?
“I hope they see me as a good person who gave the fans so much joy, so much tension, who put darts on the map in Holland,” he said.
“I have done things in my life which no ordinary darts player can expect to achieve: One day I flew an F-16 as a pilot and I came home from winning the world championship and it looked like the Beatles had landed in Amsterdam.”