It’s been 25 years since a young Richie Burnett swept aside Raymond Van Barneveld 6-3 in sets to reach the summit of the darting landscape and become BDO World Champion in 1995.
The Welshman, nicknamed The Prince of Wales, became the world number 1 as a result of the historic win, and just the third ever Welshman to achieve number 1 seed.
Despite what must have been a seemingly mammoth level of pressure, Richie’s confidence never flickered.
“I was probably the best player in the world at the time so before the final I was confident, well before the whole tournament I was confident. I can’t remember much of that night after the win though!”
“It didn’t bother me who I played, I was ready to play anybody. Barney had been around longer than me on TV events and stuff like that but I was just winning everything at the time.”
It seemed for the time being that Richie was on top of the world, and he had brought the reputation of Welsh darts with him.
“I absolutely believe it was a high point for welsh darts, because even though Leighton Rees was World Champion at one point he hadn’t been number one in the world for ages.”
“Only a couple of players in the PDC could’ve given me a proper game at that time, (Phil) Taylor and (Dennis) Priestley. It was such a great feeling to become world number one and the true number one I felt.”
In the years following Richie had developed what every dart player fears the most: Dartitis. It’s a condition that has famously finished players off professionally and it almost did the same to the Cwmparc-born darting legend.
“Your arm doesn’t do what your brain tells it to and it just sort of locks, it’s the most frustrating thing for a darts player to go through. You can have a loss of form and feel down in the dumps about it but with dartitis you know you want to play and you just can’t!”
Richie is one of the few players lucky enough to overcome the condition and continue playing eventually, but it didn’t come easy.
“Having that for a couple of years I just laid off for a little while and locked myself away basically. I used to throw myself at the board if I couldn’t let [the dart] go.”
“Sometimes I’d watch videos after it and think ‘Christ, was I like that?’. Once you start thinking about dartitis heavily you’ll have it again. At some points I thought that was the end of my career but I was determined to make a comeback and that’s what happened. I was as proud of getting rid of dartitis as I was of making it in darts in the first place.”
After a harrowing battle with mental health which led to him failing a drugs test, losing his tour card and picking up an 18 month suspension in the process, Richie has mounted somewhat of a comeback, but promises there’s still plenty more gas in the tank.
“Ever since I came back into darts two years ago I’ve had nothing but injuries and problems but once this is done there are no excuses and I’ll just go for it.”
Since his absence from the sport there have been a number of players who have risen up the ranks, including fellow Welshman and world number three Gerwyn Price. I proceeded to ask Richie whether ‘The Iceman’ can fill his shoes as the next Welsh world number one, and whether he’d be up to the challenge of facing him.
“Gerwyn’s already there for me in my eyes but there are other players out there, they’ve just got to put in the work, and I’ll be one of them!”
“He would be a great test because he’s playing great darts at the moment, but I haven’t seen anything that I would have problems with if I’m at my game.”
“I think my best darts are better than anybody’s, it’s just a case of getting to that point. Practise wise I don’t think anyone can outscore me so I’m not frightened. If I could get back to winning ways then I’m confident of beating anyone.”
Hopefully for Richie this level of self-belief will be a sign of what might be to come for the 53 year old, as the mouth watering clash between The Iceman and The Prince of Wales is surely something of a dream encounter for any darts fan.
Owen Gardner's Sports Blog 