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 .

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World Darts Championships Player Profile # 2: James Wade

At 25, James Wade is very much a child of the PDC. One of the games rising stars Wade would have grown up watching the likes of Phil Taylor and Dennis Priestley playing PDC darts after it moved to Sky in the early 90’s.

His rise to the top was competed in 2006 when he reached the final of the World Matchplay in Blackpool where he lost to Taylor (five words you will read a lot on these pages. Taylor has pretty much beaten everyone who ever reach a final). However, 2007 was Wade’s year. He returned to Blackpool to win the whole tournament by beating Terry Jenkins in the final.

The following October Wade won the World Grand Prix in Dublin, again by beating Jenkins. More success was to follow in 2008 in the UK Open when Wade saw off the challenge of Gary Mawson to clinch victory at the Reebok Stadium.

Since then, Wade has been installed as the number two to Taylor who returned to form this year. Wade made it to the finals of the Las Vegas Desert Classic, the World Matchplay (again) and the Premier League and lost to Taylor on all counts. The fear for Wade is that he is becoming Taylor’s bunny. Wade however, will point to the fact that he beat The Power in a Premier League match earlier in the year.

However, it is for this reason that Wade may have to wait a little longer for the World title. Expect Wade to progress through the tournament until he meets Taylor and is knocked out, possibly in the Final.

Despite that Wade is a fantastic player destined to inherit Taylor’s mantle when the great man eventually steps down (although he’ll never win as many title as the Power. No one will). He is also one of the few dart players to score an elusive 9-dart checkout on TV. His nickname is the Machine and his walk on music is so non-descript that I can’t remember what it is (something crap probably).

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World Darts Championships Player Profile # 1: John Part

The current World Champion is from Oshawa in Canada. He first rose to prominence in 1994 when he won the BDO World Championship at the lakeside. With the Darts world split into two organisations and with the greatest prize money and TV coverage, not to mention Phil Taylor, at the PDC Part made the move across the darting divide in 1997.

He rose through the PDC ranks and faced Taylor in the World Championship final in 2001 only to be thrashed by The Power.

Two years later he was back and this time it was Part who had the upper hand. He'd been in magnificent form throughout the tournament. Taylor had been at his imperious best and was still the favourite to take the title yet again. It was an epic encounter rivaled only by the great Taylor v Van Barneveld final of 2007. Part claimed the title by 7 games to 6 despite Taylor fighting back from 4-1 down.

The years that follow have been inconsistent for Part, a founder member of the Premier League he lost his spot in 2007 and has struggled to regain those magnificent heights. Nevertheless he remained one of the top players in the World as slowly started to put things back together last year, culminating in a fantastic run the the final of the World Championships this time last year. Rather than face Taylor, he was confronted by the rank outsider Kirk Shepherd whose hot streak had coincided with his appearance in the Championships and had deposited him unexpectedly in the final. It was a disappointing match in truth. Perhaps understandably the occasion got to Shepherd. Part won easily and took his third world crown.

Part plays with a perma-sneer on his face. When he's playing well he is a prodigious double thrower under pressure and a heavy scorer. He also has a reputation for being one of the best counters in the business. His nick-name is Darth Maple and his walk-on music is the Imperial March from Star Wars by John Williams. He is also supposed to be one of the nicest guys on the circuit. All of these elements make him a worthy champion.

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PDC World Darts Championships

On Friday, the best players from around the globe (well most of them at least) will assemble at Alexandra Palace in north London to compete for the PDC World Darts Championship. The tournament will be televised live on Sky. The event is the culmination of a year of ranking tournaments that has seen 13 times World Champion and darting legend Phil 'The Power' Taylor (right) return to prominence after what was a poor 2007, by his standards.

In 2008 Taylor has won all but one televised ranking events. Only the UK Open eluded him. His year started with disappointment as he was knocked out of the World Championship and was forced to watch John Part claim title from the rank outsider Kirk Shepherd in a disappointing final. While he continued to dominate the Premier League Taylor was knocked out in an early round of UK Open which was won by James Wade.

From then on however, it was Taylor all the way emphatically winning the Premier League, the Desert Classic, World Matchplay, World Grand Prix, European Championships and Grand Slam (a non ranking but prestigious event). For many (including me) Taylor is a shoe in to make it 14 World titles.

However, professional darts is not just about Taylor. The journey to the final will be a long, action packed, dramatic roller coaster. For the uninitiated, darts is a game of skill and nerve. Players who can throw rudimentary check-outs with there eyes closed become quivering wrecks under the lights and in front of thousands of baying fans. Literally thousands of pounds can be won or lost on the width of a wire. The tension and excitement make for a wonderful competitive spectacle and darts continues to grow in popularity as a spectator sport.

Over the next few days, this blog will dedicated itself to the upcoming tournament and introduce you to some of the games greatest players and more colourful characters.

But first, here is a wee taster of darts at its finest.

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