The Mount Rushmore debate in darts – like most great pub arguments – isn’t about who’s on the mountain. It’s about who’s clinging to the edge for that coveted fourth spot.
Three faces are essentially granite-certified: Eric Bristow, Phil Taylor, and Michael van Gerwen. In chronological order, not ego size. Those three are inked into history – or more accurately, chiselled in – with barely a grumble of dissent.
But now Raymond van Barneveld has wandered over with his mallet and chisel, asking politely (well, sort of) if he can be the final face. And to be fair, he’s not exactly pitching from a standing start. Five World Championship titles, including the one most consider to be the greatest match of the modern era, and a bunch of majors mean the man known as the Daddy of Dutch Darts has every right to lob his metaphorical hat onto the sacred stone.
Raymond van Barneveld's Iconic Moment - The GREATEST game ever?
Speaking at the recent World Seniors Darts Champion of Champions event, Barney made his case:
“Luke Littler and Luke Humphries are big names right now. Sometimes I think it's too soon for them. It's just probably me, I think Littler too soon. Humphries if he wins more World titles, but Michael won three, Taylor 16, Bristow five, and I won five. So I think I belong in the top four.”
You can't fault the logic – nor the confidence. And let’s be honest, if darts had a throne, Barney has been worth of sitting on it for a good stretch, fur coat and all.
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Of course, the Americans haven’t changed their actual Mount Rushmore since it was carved, probably because swapping heads up there is only marginally easier than regrouting the Taj Mahal. But darts is different. Greatness here may be set in stone, but the quarry’s always open.
Now, yes, Barney does have more World titles than van Gerwen. But MVG – now more Black Machine than Green Machine – is still the favourite thanks to his absolute strangulation of the sport for several dominant years and a healthy PDC TV majors tally.
So clearly, sheer World title count isn’t the sole metric. Four of Van Barneveld's world titles were in an organisation weakened by the formation of the PDC and he had not had the major title return in the PDC to match his undoubted status
Which brings us to you. Are you a nostalgia merchant, drawn to the legends of yesteryear like John Lowe, Jocky Wilson and Dennis Priestley?
JOHN LOWE'S PERFECT MOMENT - The first televised 9 dart leg
Lowe won three world titles ( in united fields) in three separate decades. Old Stoneface also threw the first ever televised perfect leg and won just about every other major available to him in that first golden era. Jocky battled both Bristow and Lowe in their pomp with the diminutive Scotsman defeating both to claim his two word titles and Dennis defeated all the great of two eras and won world titles in both major codes.
Or do you lean toward the modern maestros – Gary Anderson, Peter Wright both of whom have two world titles and majors aplenty or the fast-ascending Littler and Humphries (though yes, perhaps a smidge early for them just yet)?
It’s a debate destined to roll on like a misfiring charabanc – and eventually, new legends will demand new masonry. So, who are your awesome foursome?
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