World Darts Championships Player Profile # 3: Raymond van Barneveld

Five times World Champion Raymond van Barneveld is one of the sport's great icons. Four of his titles were in the BDO and won at the Lakeside. However, the rise of the PDC and the challenge posed by Phil Taylor proved to strong and he made the switch early in 2006 with an automatic birth in the lucrative Premier League.

Van Barneveld is Holland's most successful and popular player. Bringing him across to the PDC was a major coup for them and paved the way for many other dutch BDO players to follow suit including Vincent van der Voort, 2006 BDO World Champion Jelle Klaasen and the young prospect Michael van Gerwin. The move will also surely pave the way for the PDC to stage a major televised event in Holland, the sports other great hotbed of support.

His Premier League campaign wasn't up to much and as a first year professional. He failed to qualify for the World Matchplay much to the disappointment of many of his fans and the tournament's promoters. However, the signs that 'Barney' was settling in to the PDC were definitely there when he knocked Taylor out of the UK Open, a competition he went on to win. He proved to be Taylor's nemesis once again in Las Vegas a few weeks later. However, while Barney was clearly the real deal, few would have expected him to win the World Championship at the end of the year. This was a competition that Taylor had won 13 times and was bound not to relinquish it to the newcomer.

No one told van Barneveld that though and the two met each other in the final which turned out to be the greatest ever darts match ever. Taylor forged ahead by three sets to nil only for Barney to storm back. The game went to sudden death and the Dutchman won the title at the death. The crowd went wild and even Taylor, a man who you suspect as trouble taking defeat gracefully, could not help but be caught up with the emotion of it all.

2007 proved to be another good year with van Barneveld defending the UK Open and winning the Desert Classic in Las Vegas. in 2008 however, things have not gone so well. At time van Barneveld as seemed visibly shaken by some of his poor performances and admitted that he had had to take an extended holiday in order to get his head together. He goes in to the tournament as second favourite behind Taylor who has returned to his imperious best. If Raymond starts the championships confidently, he may well regain his crown. It will require a Herculean effort from him though if he is to repeat the scenes of early 2007 .