Van Barneveld reaches Worlds...thanks to new SHOES!

RAYMOND van Barneveld reached a record-breaking 34th World Championship - thanks to wearing new SHOES.

The Dutch legend sealed his place at the Ally Pally with a quarter-final and last 64 results in the final two Players Championship events in Leicester.

But Barney, 59, admitted during practice in his garage recently that he could hardly miss a dart. He wondered wondered what the difference was and realised he was wearing white Nike Air Force 1 shoes, instead of his normal footwear.

He told Nu.nl: “Normally, I always wear those ECCO shoes when playing darts.

“But things went well in those white Nikes. I was standing slightly higher than in my other shoes and was hitting all kinds of triples. I thought: what on earth is this? So the height of the shoe can make a big difference.”

He then revealed that he called over his girlfriend Julia and said: “I said: ‘You have to take a look at this’. She also said: ‘Yes, this is really bizarre’. White trainers don't look good under black trousers, so I asked Julia to look for the same model in black.”

The five-times world champion then wore the new shoes for the Players Championships in Leicester on Wednesday and Thursday.

He added: “I’ve played in them for two days now and you won't believe it. The darts are sitting differently in the board and I'm hitting my targets. Go figure. After 42 years, you change something and suddenly it works."

Almost now 60, having been there at the very start of the PDC's time at the Palace, the Barney Army will cheer him onto the new stage next month with the Dutch legend’s place now cemented .

Fans feared they may never see RVB at the Ally Pally again after his harrowing defeat to Stefan Bellmont in last year's tournament.

The Hague hero was thumped 3-0 in demoralising fashion and it hurt badly at the time as he said: “Christmas doesn’t count for me this year. I have nothing to celebrate."

However, 11 months later, he will get the chance to right that painful wrong as he makes his way back for the biggest event in darts.

Image by Taylor Lanning.