Raymond van Barneveld discusses his return to form, quest for big wins, and the World Matchplay on the Love the Darts Podcast; watch every match from the men's and women's World Matchplay live on Sky Sports from July 15 to July 23
Saturday 15 July 2023 18:33, UK
Raymond van Barneveld is making sure to not get ahead of himself as he prepares to compete at the World Matchplay on Saturday.
It has been five years since Barney last competed at the Matchplay, but he will return when the tournament gets under way at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool this weekend.
While excited to be competing in the big tournaments again, Barney is making sure to take the occasion "step by step" and that starts with beating Ryan Searle in his first-round clash.
However, if he gets past Searle and then faces Peter Wright or Andrew Gilding, he may start to dream of bigger things.
"It's not realistic to say I'm going to win this trophy, so I'm going to take it step by step," Barney told the Love the Darts podcast.
"If you see the standard nowadays and see the likes of Ryan Searle, Jonny Clayton and Luke Humphries, outside of the top five or six players in the world, they are amazing and you have to achieve 100+ averages to beat these guys.
"I'm really looking forward to Ryan Searle. I'm not going to say I'm going to win, I'm going to do my very best to get to the second round and then we will see what's next.
"It's not realistic to say I'm going to win this game and then maybe play Peter Wright or Andrew Gilding. No, Ryan Searle is a fantastic player, a very nice guy, a high scorer, good finisher, so I need to prepare myself really good for that.
"If I win, then we look forward. Dreams can come true, we saw that at the Grand Slam of Darts last year! I reached the semi-finals and even beat Gerwyn Price, who was world No 1 at the time, in the best of 31 legs.
"I showed that I can still do it and they all know this. You have to get that form on the day and hopefully that's going to be Monday."
It has been an up and down few years for van Barneveld, but he is now firmly on his quest to get back to the summit of darts.
A lot has changed for the five-time World Champion but mainly, he now has belief in himself that he can qualify for and perform in all the big events.
"It's all about belief and sometimes, you don't even have to play really well to still believe in it. If you believe in this and you put the work in, you can achieve a lot, but if you don't believe in it, then pack in because you're not going to make it," he added.
"Every year I say to myself I'm going to qualify for the World Championship, I'm going to qualify for the Grand Slam of Darts and I'm going to do this and that and nine of ten times I achieve my goals.
"It's all about belief and working hard. I didn't play too badly on the EuroPro Tour, but I'll work twice as hard as it's a bit of punishment training. It gives yourself a kick in the bum to go to the practice board and prepare for Monday.
"There's nothing more you can do, but you have to keep setting yourself goals every single time. If you set goals then you can achieve them if you work hard enough."
Catch all the action from the World Matchplay from July 15-23 - live on Sky Sports
