Raymond van Barneveld ended Gerwyn Price’s Grand Slam of Darts and revealed a little help from his old rival Phil Taylor.

Raymond van Barneveld ended Gerwyn Price’s Grand Slam of Darts and revealed a little help from his old rival Phil Taylor.

The Barney Army was in full voice as van Barneveld produced the night of his life since coming back to professional darts. After defeating world number one Gerwyn Price, Barney tells how he has been sharing text messages with his once rival Phil Taylor.

“He’s there all the time. He’s giving me text messages like you can do this buddy, I believe in you. He doesn’t need to do this, he’s the best darts player ever. We had many fights and many games and he’s behind me and that gives me an incredible feeling. I don’t want to disappoint this man, my family or future wife. I’m so happy, you can’t describe this in words.”

RvB’s incredible 16-13 win at the Grand Slam of Darts to reach his first TV ranking semi-final in nearly six years.

Van Barneveld silenced the doubters including Michael van Gerwen, who said he couldn’t do it over the longer format.

“I don’t know what just happened. 8-3 down and win this game. I keep believing in myself and saying Ray you can do this. But this man is something else, he is one of the best players in the world and I took my chances and sometimes I gave him a few darts but at the end I was there and I played awesome,

“If you beat the World Number One twice in one tournament, what can you say. It’s not a coincidence that he played awesome, he’s a top class player. The last four years he won this tournament three times but I can beat him.”

“I gave myself a target after the group win, I want to be in the top 32 in the world at the end of this month and I think I’m going to do this.”

“Why can’t I do this against Michael Smith, I believe in it.”