sennafan24 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 29, 2024 8:14 pm
Randall wrote: ↑Thu Aug 29, 2024 7:10 pm
The case for cannot rely on his performances in the professional game
The case for Barney:
- The Lakeside and Masters titles were won when the BDO was at its strongest post-split [1998-2005]
- He beat a very good version of Taylor to win his PDC World Title.
- He won the 06/07 UK Open [beating Taylor in both], 07 Desert Classic [against a very tough draw], and later beat a very good version of MVG in finals to win the GSOD and PL. He also won the 2006 IDL[beating a peak version of Lloydy in the final]
- He did have great longevity at the top-end of the game. He was at least in the top 5 players overall of the 1990s and 2000s. Probably 2nd for the 2000s.
I feel dirty after typing this.
The case against Barney:
- His first two Lakesides [98 and 99] were won without top players such as Taylor, Priestley, Harrington and Warriner in the fields. Likewise his final two Lakeside titles [2003 and 2005] were won without top players such as Taylor and Part in the fields. In a unified field I suspect he would have won 2-3 World titles, but not 5.
- His two biggest wins of the 90s came in Lakeside finals against Burnett and Baxter. Harrington beat both Baxter and Burnett in TV games 6 months prior to when Barney beat them at Lakeside. Warriner and Taylor also beat Burnett in TV games 6 months before Barney beat him at Lakeside. So it wasn't like Barney was beating opponents that the top players in the PDC could not beat in the late 90s.
- His head to head records against Taylor and MVG are/were lopsided in his opponent's favour. While Lowe also had a losing record against Bristow, and Gando losing records against Taylor/MVG, this merely puts his status on par with them as a rival to the top players of his time, rather than an equal.
- His PDC career was a disappointment after the opening 18 months or so. He hasn't won a ranking TV event in 17 years [07 UK Open] and has only won 2 TV singles events in that timeframe [2012 GSOD and 2014 PL]. This is despite the quantity of PDC TV events increasingly compared to the 2000s and especially the 1990s.