Raymond van Barneveld v West Newton

This is Barneveld’s first tournament since taking a two month sabbatical during the summer. He came through his first match back by beating an erratic Alan Tabern 2-1 after losing the first set. Barneveld was slow out of the blocks and got duly punished when Tabern took the opening set, however in the latter stages of the match, Barneveld was let out of jail a number of times due to Tabern’s failure to hit starting and finishing doubles, with Tabern needing 15 darts in one of the legs to get away. Barneveld did show glimpses of brilliance, such as checking out a 130 shot to take the match, but his overall performance was average at best. Wes Newton made an impressive start to the tournament beating Jamie Caven 2-0. Newton was ruthless around the doubles, highlighted with him checking out with two double tops to lead the second set. Many will naturally see Barneveld to be favourite in this simply on reputation, but I don’t see it quite that way. If Newton can hit the doubles anything like he did on Tuesday, and can maintain anything like the 94.65 average, he’s got every chance of turning over what looks like a troubled Barneveld who only mustered an 87.06 3 dart average against Tabern.

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