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thegentle wrote:Well, someone had to ask it, if Barney had been in the PDC all along, how many titles do him and Taylor win? Would Barney have won many more, or would Taylor have merely broken him at an earlier stage?

Taylor was pretty complacent around 2003-2006 it seemed to me.
World final struggled against painter and dudbridge.
That Taylor would have been vulnerable.
That said, when the challenge arrived, look what happened. Also factor in the games at the masters of darts as well.
Taylor would have broken him at any time for me.

I'll miss rooting for the big Dutchman and his Cadillac arm with that smooth and easy throw.
If he gets into the PL, he should just have his fun and let the chips (ranking points) fall where they will.
If he doesn't, the best farewells would be to skip the players championships and go for the european tour events.

skweezit wrote:I'll miss rooting for the big Dutchman and his Cadillac arm with that smooth and easy throw.
If he gets into the PL, he should just have his fun and let the chips (ranking points) fall where they will.
If he doesn't, the best farewells would be to skip the players championships and go for the european tour events.

Would be fairly risky tbf, no guarantee he'd even qualify for the ET events. Tried to qualify for three this year without success

thegentle wrote:

skweezit wrote:I'll miss rooting for the big Dutchman and his Cadillac arm with that smooth and easy throw.
If he gets into the PL, he should just have his fun and let the chips (ranking points) fall where they will.
If he doesn't, the best farewells would be to skip the players championships and go for the european tour events.

Would be fairly risky tbf, no guarantee he'd even qualify for the ET events. Tried to qualify for three this year without success

it's mostly because they are shown on tv.
who wants to do a farewell tour behind closed doors?
go after the ET events, get into some Sundays and then get into the finals.

You only have to look at his Instagram feed to see he has better things in life to do and why he ain't on the tour.
Good luck to him

I hope Barney has one last good run, a semi or a final, his heart clearly hasn't been in it really for the last 4 or 5 years, he's a legend of the game and a colossal figure in the history of the PDC and BDO as well. I've cheered him on many times in his early PDC days, and loved watching him play well, he was a trailblazer, a genius at his best, a beacon of hope in an English dominated game, he greatly accelerated the Dutch boom and the rise of the PDC as an organisation, let us not forget all that he has done for the game.

Hope his farewell tour portrays the way he has played the last 5 years or so, basically a damp squib. He is a lazy fuck and will be surprised if he bothers to try to qualify for more than a couple ET's. PL and WSOD events will be enough of a work load for him and that is probably what he is hoping for as a result of making the announcement. Otherwise his inclusion would not be secured.

from Burton....

I'll say this one time only... RvB already got his freebie Premier League invite.
He had it this year. He's not Cher. He shouldn't get a farewell tour that lasts half a decade.
If he's in the PL next year, it's a two finger salute to the other 118 tour card holders.

Unusually frank from Burton...

He also replied to someone who said...
Barney deserves it... period..

Burton... He wouldn't, even if five people declined an invite...period

thegentle wrote:Well, someone had to ask it, if Barney had been in the PDC all along, how many titles do him and Taylor win? Would Barney have won many more, or would Taylor have merely broken him at an earlier stage?

With the lack of depth of the PDC during the 90s pretty much every final would have been a combination of Taylor, Priestley and Barney. I think Taylor still wins the majority of them.

I've always thought Barney winning the Worlds in his debut year (especially doing it by beating Taylor) was the worst thing that could happen to him. It seemed like he achieved his lifelong goal and pretty much downed tools since that moment and ended up not winning anywhere near as much as he could and should have.

ThudThudThud3 wrote:

thegentle wrote:Well, someone had to ask it, if Barney had been in the PDC all along, how many titles do him and Taylor win? Would Barney have won many more, or would Taylor have merely broken him at an earlier stage?

With the lack of depth of the PDC during the 90s pretty much every final would have been a combination of Taylor, Priestley and Barney. I think Taylor still wins the majority of them.

I've always thought Barney winning the Worlds in his debut year (especially doing it by beating Taylor) was the worst thing that could happen to him. It seemed like he achieved his lifelong goal and pretty much downed tools since that moment and ended up not winning anywhere near as much as he could and should have.

There were plenty of factors. After winning the 2007 World Championship, Barney in the rest of 2007 (mostly up to July) won the Masters of Darts, the UK Open, the Las Vegas Desert Classic, won 4 Pro Tours, and 2 UK Open regionals, and was runner-up of the US Open. Barney in June-July 2007 looked dominant. Taylor's form troubles were back in June and July like they had been for a period around February time. Barney's hunger did not look the slightest bit diminished by being world champion, quite the opposite. On the last day of the 2007 UK Open, he beat Taylor 11-4, Lloyd 11-4 and van der Voort 16-8, and then carved through the 2007 Las Vegas Desert Classic field with ease. There didn't seem to be anyone capable of living with him at the time over a distance, unless Taylor got back to his proper form. All the more ironic that Barney didn't win another TV singles major for over 5 years.

Barney started hurting himself in the second half of 2007 and first half of 2008 by experimenting with ceramic darts. It didn't work out, his consistency dropped off, he lost his unbeaten UK Open record and he had a calamitous match with Mardle at the 2008 World Matchplay where Barney led 12-7 in the quarter finals with 3 breaks of throw and then lost 8 straight legs before eventually losing 16-18. Following that loss, Barney took 2 months off, came back refreshed, reached the final of an Irish Pro Tour where Priestley beat him, and it took Taylor to beat him in the World Grand Prix final which was much closer than the 6-2 scoreline suggests. Barney walked off in a huff after losing, so he expected to beat Taylor and it hurt him bad. At the 2009 World Championship, Taylor won 7-1 against Barney in the final with a 110.94 average, even though most of the sets were very close, but this time Barney was all smiles afterwards.

Come the final of the 2009 Las Vegas Desert Classic, Taylor beats Barney 13-11 after Barney had given up for a few legs, fought back but by then Taylor was too close to the finishing line, and then came Barney's eulogizing of Taylor's greatness after the match. At the 2009 World Matchplay, Terry Jenkins gave him a battering in the quarter finals, going 15-8 up and winning 16-12. Barney took another 2 months off, got diagnosed with diabetes (which he claimed had been undiagnosed for well over a year beforehand), reached another World Grand Prix final against Taylor, took a 2-0 lead but lost 3-6. At the 2010 World Championship, Barney was 4-2 up against Whitlock in the semi finals, but lost 5-6.

During the 2010 Premier League, Barney was a victim of a blackmail scandal back home, and was in poor form for most of the campaign, and missed the UK Open (then in June) completely. He came into the 2010 World Matchplay with a big point to prove, and was at or near his best all tournament, especially when beating Wade 17-8 in the semi finals. Taylor beat him 18-12 in the final.

Barney didn't achieve more largely because of a certain Taylor, but also because of changing his darts setup, health issues with diabetes. Barney lived to be the best, and he wasn't able to do that.

The turning point in his entire career was with those ceramic darts. He'd changed to a Taylor-style setup the back end of 2006 and it suited him so well he was outdoing Taylor at his own game with them. Then he lost that Matchplay game to Lewis and at the next tournament he turned up with the ceramic ones and from there it turned into open season with him changing shit every tournament/week in the Premier League, even on a few occassions mid-match.

By the time he tried going back to the old ones that had won him all those titles early on he'd completely lost the weight of the dart and they were landing in the board at an angle that was totally useless to him. Occassionally the stars would align for a match or two and he'd be unbeatable but he fucked around so much that his tournament-winning consistency had completely gone. His incredible throwing action and natural talent alone has dragged him through the last few years to some mildly respectable results no matter what darts he's using but even that has started changing over the last year or so into something is destroying whatever consistency he had left.

It's a good time for him to finish up. I hope he doesn't go out on a total whimper because he's one of the most naturally gifted players ever.

Uh oh.


Live Darts @livedarts
RANT ALERT Wayne Mardle hits out at the Barney critics!

We all know that Mardle is fucking stupid.

This is the confirmation

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John Lowe has 3 world titles.

Get him in the Premier League.

Good Riddance. Blokes a complete bore. Seen more personality in a damp dish cloth

8 Dart King wrote: ↑Thu Dec 27, 2018 9:27 am Good Riddance. Blokes a complete bore. Seen more personality in a damp dish cloth

Couldn't have put it better myself. Welcome to the forum mate

8 Dart King wrote: ↑Thu Dec 27, 2018 9:27 am Good Riddance. Blokes a complete bore. Seen more personality in a damp dish cloth

Welcome aboard

Welcome aboard

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The Thorn wrote: ↑Thu Dec 27, 2018 1:54 pm

8 Dart King wrote: ↑Thu Dec 27, 2018 9:27 am Good Riddance. Blokes a complete bore. Seen more personality in a damp dish cloth

Couldn't have put it better myself. Welcome to the forum mate

+1 ; in memory of the great +1'ers Kimmy and Bob Ross.

8 Dart King wrote: ↑Thu Dec 27, 2018 9:27 am Good Riddance. Blokes a complete bore. Seen more personality in a damp dish cloth

how dare you?

welcome to the darts forum