Raymond van Barneveld puts honeymoon on hold having already moved wedding day as darts legend targets Ally Pally glory
NEWLY-WED Raymond van Barneveld put honeymoon plans on hold for his latest shot at Ally Pally glory.
The Dutchman got married to Londoner Julia in Cyprus on September 19, surrounded by their close family and friends.
Raymond van Barneveld joked he will reach the world championship final – as that would delay his honeymoon plansGetty
Barney is as contented as ever after marrying Julia in September
Their wedding had to be moved back a day after he was involved in the World Series of Darts Finals in Amsterdam.
Five-time world darts champ RVB is in a happy place on the eve of his 31st World Championship appearance.
And anyone else chasing the Sid Waddell Trophy should watch out — because when 56-year-old Barney is in relaxed mood, he can be very dangerous.
He said: “It was a fantastic day — 60 people came over to Larnaca from England and Holland for the wedding.
“Julia has relatives from Cyprus. Her grandfather was from that place. Julia looked really beautiful.
“The disadvantage of darts is I need to travel all of the time. So we haven’t had the time to have a nice honeymoon.
“We are looking to this January after the World Championship — so I’m pretty sure I’ll be in the final then!
“It’s not so easy to go on holiday in January. It’s raining everywhere. You don’t want to sit somewhere and it’s raining for 14 days, right?
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“We wanted to go Malaysia. But it’s raining there all day.”
Van Barneveld was in the UK to promote his new range of Target Darts, which are being packaged up in the form of a newspaper, with mocked-up headlines and stories highlighting his extraordinary career.
The No 29 seed will face either Pole Radek Szaganski or Finnish qualifier Marko Kantele in the second round a week tomorrow.
RVB last made the semi- finals in 2017 and were he to win a sixth title, he would be the oldest world champion in the PDC’s 30-year history.
But he added: “It’s not realistic now to say I’m going to lift the trophy. There are better players at the moment.
“When I won the world title in 2007, if somebody had said, ‘Ray, this is the last time you’ll become world champion’, I would have laughed and said, ‘No. I’m going to win this more than three times more’. Which I never did.
“Next year I’ll want to be in the top 16 and in every Major. That’s a nice target to aim for.”
THE special edition Barney25 darts, commemorating the 25th anniversary of RVB’s first World Championship, are available to buy at www.target-darts.co.uk
