Sick Raymond van Barneveld defied food poisoning from Chinese to win thriller
Lovebird Raymond van Barneveld defied food poisoning to leave Ryan Meikle sick as a carat in a late-night thriller.
Watched by fiancee Julia, to whom he proposed in Paris with a diamond ring dripping in carats earlier this year, Barney reached the third round at the Cazoo PDC World Championship for the first time in five years.
Waiting for him in the last 32 will be world No.1 Gerywn Price, whom he beat twice at the Grand Slam last month. But his 3-1 win against Suffolk's demon 'Barber' Meikle drove the five-times world champ prawn crackers – because it was all cisterns go.
READ MORE: Raymond van Barneveld falls ill ahead of World Championship Darts opener
He revealed: “Yesterday I went to a Chinese restaurant in Piccadilly Circus and today both me and my manager had food poisoning. And I didn't have a good practice before the game – I could only throw three darts and after that I was so tired, so this was a fight against myself and a battle of willpower.
“You never know what you're going to get in prawn crackers, but I thought if I just managed to play tonight, I'd be really happy. Then Ryan came out and played so well in the first set that I was thinking, 'When is this guy going to stop hitting treble 20s and doubles?'
“I don't know what happened to him in the last couple of sets, but I was really happy to get the job done.”
Good old Barney. At 55, he should be getting ready for a mug of cocoa and slippers approaching midnight, but he is still chasing his dreams like a butterflies with a frying pan.
In his 30th world championship campaign, RVB spent all day struggling to prevent his distant ambitions of a sixth title going down the pan without even throwing a dart in anger.
He was only passed fit hours before he was due on stage, and when Meikle took the first set it looked like Holland's most-revered marksman was in for a rough night.
Although Michael van Gerwen's record-breaking rampage in the 21st century commands universal respect, Barney is darting royalty in the Netherlands.
He came roaring back to level the contest, averaging 115.62 in the second set, and in the end he scattered seven 180 maximums across a decent performance averaging 95.18.
Barney will have to score more heavily to make the Iceman melt, but a 50 per cent strike rate on the doubles is good enough to trouble the top dogs. But if he can play like this after food poisoning, he could be a real threat to Price.
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