It is an old adage – “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” Well Raymond van Barneveld has changed his darts so much over the past five years, but now he has gone back to what he knows best!
And it showed, as Barney blitzed Ronnie Baxter with EIGHT 180s and a 105 average in a highly impressive 6-3 win on the opening night of the Players Championship Finals in Doncaster.
Unicorn have produced exact replicas of the darts Barney used to win his epic World Championship against Phil Taylor at the Circus Tavern in 2007.
And they certainly did the trick!
Elsewhere on the first night at the Doncaster Dome, Team Unicorn stars James Wade and Wes Newton won through to the last 16, but there was a dramatic defeat for Paul Nicholson and another disappointing setback for Jamie Caven.
But what a performance from Barneveld, who certainly took centre stage!
He took up the story: “After my disappointing Grand Slam, I sought the advice of people like Eric Bristow, Rod Harrington and Keith Deller and they all told me to go back to those darts from that famous night at the Circus Tavern!”
“And thanks to Unicorn, I have. They are 25 gms and there will be no more changes – I promise!
I am very happy and if I hadn’t missed all those doubles, would have had my average up at around 110.”
He added: “From now on my head is right….I am buzzing and hopefully will be in a great frame of mind for the World Championship.”
Barney now plays Scott Rand in Saturday’s 2nd Round…..his first three darts produced a maximum, as he raced into a 3-0 lead….Baxter pulled a leg back and won another one after the Dutchman missed four darts for a 4-1 lead.
He missed another dart at D18 and it was 3-3, but the 180s kept on coming….four more maximums and he won it in style with a brilliant 11 darter…..great stuff from Barneveld!
If Barney was brilliant, Newton showed his class to come from 0-2 down to beat Richie Burnett 6-3.
Newton is a good each-way bet here at the Doncaster Dome and will now face Peter Wright in Saturday’s 2nd Round.
His opponent made some mistakes, but Newton certainly made the most of his chances – with 5 180s, a 177 and two 12 darters….D8 won it!
Wade was forced to battle….but battle he did to overcome Andy Smith 6-4.
From 1-2 down, the Unicorn star crucially reeled off three successive legs to take control and always had just enough to stay in charge of the match.
He missed one dart at D18 for a 116 finish and a 6-3 win but a third 180 helped him over the finishing line and he won it on ‘tops’ – a 50 % check-out success rate turned out to be the match-winner in the end!
And Wade should have been playing Paul Nicholson in round two, but ‘The Asset’ blew it big time against Steve Brown and paid a heavy price for missed doubles.
Nicholson was fuming after losing a last leg decider….and the 2010 winner of this event will now tumble down the world rankings, because he was defending £60,000 on the PDC Order of Merit from winning the Players Championship Finals at the Circus Tavern two years ago.
But he only has himself to blame…..he could have been 4-0 up but for four crucial missed doubles and a succession of 180s saw him come from 1-3 down to lead 4-3.
The match seemed destined for a decider and so it proved to be but Nicholson was favourite throwing first….however he couldn’t buy a big treble, and Brown took control.
Nicholson so nearly bailed himself out of trouble, as he wired the bull for what would have been a match-winning 170 check-out…..his opponent nailed ‘tops’ and that was that.
It was a match he should have won and Nicholson will know that…..all very disappointing in his quest to clinch a Premier League spot as well.
And Jamie Caven’s nightmare year in the big events continued, as he fell in the opening match of the tournament.
It has been one setback after another in the TV ‘Majors’ and sadly, it was the same old story in Doncaster as he was beaten 6-2 by Scott Rand.
To be fair, he didn’t do too much wrong but Rand was in top form, averaging 99 and hitting three 180s….he broke the Caven throw in the opening leg and then again to lead 5-2 after the Unicorn man missed two darts at D8…..and D18 won it for Rand to confirm another early exit for Caven.
Thursday 1st Round results:
Jamie Caven 2-6 Scott Rand
Mark Walsh 6-3 Mark Hylton
Peter Wright 6-4 Denis Ovens
John Part 0-6 Wayne Jones
Wes Newton 6-3 Richie Burnett
Ronnie Baxter 3-6 Raymond van Barneveld
James Wade 6-4 Andy Smith
Paul Nicholson 5-6 Steve Brown
Friday 1st Round schedule:
Dave Chisnall v Alan Tabern
Colin Osborne v Kevin Painter
Vincent van der Voort v Co Stompe
Mervyn King v Colin Lloyd
Justin Pipe v John Henderson
Phil Taylor v Terry Jenkins
Mark Webster v Steve Beaton
Gary Anderson v Michael van Gerwen
By STUART PYKE at the Doncaster Dome
Photos courtesy Lawrence Lustig / PDC and Chris Sargeant