Barneveld books final place

Raymond van Barneveld tonight completed his half of the bargain to set up a dream final against Phil Taylor at the Ladbrokes.com World Championship in Purfleet.

The 39-year-old Dutchman took only an hour to win his semi-final 6-0 against Andy Jenkins, which meant he could sit back and watch Taylor try to do his part by beating Andy ‘The Hammer’ Hamilton.

It was all remarkably easy for ‘Barney’, for whom the only dropped sets in his five matches in the tournament have been the first three of his second-round clash with world number one Colin Lloyd.

Jenkins had impressed with his resolution when coming through close tussles with Adrian Lewis and Colin Osborne but this time the 35-year-old from Hampshire was never at the races.

‘Rocky’ had a chance to take the third set but his finishing, the most impressive part of his game in the two previous rounds, was off-key whereas Van Barneveld proved crisp on the checkouts.

“Maybe Andy was affected by having had to play on each of the last four days,” said four-time Lakeside world champion Van Barneveld, who only joined the Professional Darts Corporation in February.

“I played my second-round match before Christmas and then had four days off, so maybe the schedule was too much for him.

“But I hit him with a lot of power, trebles all over the place, and only one dart at the doubles for most of the first four sets. I think after that point I had got into his head.

“I like to play against fast throwers like Andy, which allows me to get into my rhythm and go bang, bang.”

Asked if it mattered who he would play in the final, Van Barneveld pretended to extend his nose Pinocchio-style and said: “No.”

But he added: “I’m on a mission here and I hope to play Phil in the final. The dream final is Van Barneveld against Taylor on New Year’s Day and everyone would watch that.”