Ahead of the darts star’s trip to SportsWorld in Finglas this week, we delve into the archives to dig up some excellent Barney trivia.
He’d be a postman if he wasn’t chucking darts for a living
In his home town of The Hague Barney was delivering mail as recently as 16 years ago and he only hung up his postbag following his first world title, the BDO version, in 1998. He went from earning about €1,000 a month to pocketing a cheque for over €50,000.
He took Holland’s World Cup final defeats in the 1970s hard
Barney was just seven when Holland lost the 1974 World Cup final to Germany and he was 11 when Argentina beat the men in orange at the final hurdle in 1978. In an interview with the Telegraph a few years back, he admitted he cried after both games.
Barney supports his local team Den Haag
He’s a massive fan of the club and he tries to wear some of the clubs yellow and green colours on the oche. They have made him an ambassador for the club but the demands of his darts schedule mean he doesn’t get to the Kyocera Stadion too often.
He cites diabetes as his biggest battle
Diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes in 2009, Barney has had to work on his fitness and diet to ensure he doesn’t get fatigued in the longer matches. Last year he had some advice for some of the others players on tour.
“You take too much sugar and you get blurred vision, you have problems, you’re sweating and you’re tired all the time. I’m warning all these youngsters to stay healthy because someday you will be 45 like me and you will suffer.”
Barney nailed the first nine-darter at the PDC World Championship
Paul Lim had managed one way back in 1990 before the split in the sport but the first at the PDC World Championships came from Barney, as he inflicted it on his fellow countryman Jelle Klaasen at the quarter-final stages of the 2009 Championship.
He got £20,000 as a bonus for that feat and Barney was also the second man to do the nine-darter at the PDC’s biggest event, nabbing another against Irishman Brendan Dolan the following year. That earned him a £25,000 bonus.
SportsWorld is one of Unicorn’s major stockists in Ireland and sells an extensive range of Unicorn products from shafts and flights, to competition standard darts and boards.
SportsWorld is Ireland’s fastest growing sports store with 27 branches throughout Ireland. With leading brands such as such as Nike, adidas, Umbro, O’Neills, Karrimor, as well as, Everlast, Lonsdale, Dunlop, Slazenger and Unicorn, Sports World is a one stop shop for all sporting needs – dedicated to offering the biggest brands at the lowest prices.
