Raymond van Barneveld: ‘I’m playing the best darts of my career … but keep losing’

Raymond van Barneveld has an unusual problem. Since Moses wore short pants, sportsmen have been frustrated by poor performance – but Van Barneveld is being driven to distraction by arguably the best form of his career. The reason is simple: no matter how well he plays, Michael van Gerwen and Gary Anderson tend to play even better.

Van Barneveld last won a major in 2014, when he was Premier League champion. Since then he has had some of the greatest victories of his career, including the famous win over Van Gerwen at the 2016 world championship, and his languid, elegant throw has rarely been more accurate than in the past few months. But he has nothing tangible to show for it.

“I’m happy with the way I’m playing but unfortunately there’s no cigar,” says Van Barneveld. “In terms of averages, I am playing the best darts of my career. But you don’t want to play well and keep on losing. I’d rather have an 89 average and win. For the last three years I’ve been to the semis of the world championship but if you don’t lift trophies any more it can hurt your feelings. It’s a bit too much at the moment.”

He has been beaten by Van Gerwen and Anderson in the quarter-final or semi-final of five of the last six TV tournaments. That includes the astonishing world championship semi-final on New Year’s Day, when Van Barneveld lost 6-2 to Van Gerwen. “I think that was the best performance of Raymond’s life,” says Van Gerwen. “What more could he do? It was a fantastic game but I was playing out of the roof.”

Van Barneveld shattered the record for the highest average in defeat at the worlds. “We talk about averages a lot,” he says. “If you play well with a 109 average and 68% on the doubles, everybody will say, ‘Ray, what a fantastic match that was, that is brilliant.’ Everyone had a fantastic night and I couldn’t sleep, because I lost.”

Despite his strong record in major tournaments, Van Barneveld is ranked only No10 in the world. When Van Gerwen is asked where he would rank Van Barneveld, he answers instantly. “Top four. He doesn’t play every tournament but if he did he’d move up very quickly.”

As well as Van Barneveld is playing, he knows time is finite. He turns 50 in April, a significant age for any darts player. When he meets his old rival Phil Taylor in the third week of the Premier League on Thursday night, the present will be clouded by the past and the future. “It’s still special,” said Taylor. “Raymond’s the one I enjoy playing more than anybody – it’s the old memories of when I first made my name and when he first made his.”

With Taylor on a farewell tour after announcing he will retire at the end of the year, there will not be many more games between the pair. Five of the top 10 – Anderson, Peter Wright, Taylor, Mensur Suljovic and Van Barneveld – are 44 or older. While all bar Taylor are playing the best darts of their career, a transition to a new generation is inevitable.

There are a few contenders to be the next superstar of darts. Benito van de Pas and Michael Smith are in the top 16, though Smith has lost his way a little in the past year. The two most exciting emerging talents are the world youth champions of the PDC and BDO: Corey Cadby, a brilliant 21-year-old from Australia, and Justin van Tergouw, a prodigious Dutch 16-year-old.

The cocksure Cadby has already beaten Taylor on TV and made an impressive world championship debut despite losing a first-round classic to Joe Cullen. “I’ll be at the top in a couple of years,” he said on ITV4’s The Darts Show in January. “I can’t wait to play Van Gerwen. I’ll take it to all of them. I will.”

The story of Van Gerwen shows that turning potential into achievement can be a painful process. “It’s not as easy as everyone thinks,” says Van Gerwen. “They are both good players but they both have to prove themselves before they can compete at all levels. They need to learn how to win. They also need to learn how to lose and get the mental strength to become a top player. That takes time. It took me six years.”

With Van Gerwen, Van de Pas, Van Tergouw and others, the Netherlands could become the new home of darts. Ten of the top 15 in the World Darts Federation’ Boys Rankings are Dutch. “I don’t think people in the UK realise how big darts is in Holland,” says Van Barneveld. “I think the people in Holland deserve their own tournament – we have one in Ireland, Germany and Belgium, so why not?” If they get one in the next few years, Van Barneveld will be even more desperate than usual to win.

Michael van Gerwen was talking at the launch of the food delivery app Just Eat’s official partnership with the Professional Darts Corporation