Nick Kenny claimed an impressive straight-sets victory over Stowe Buntz to set up a second-round clash with Raymond van Barneveld, who he has hit out at
Nick Kenny claimed an impressive straight-sets victory over Stowe Buntz to set up a second-round clash with Raymond van Barneveld, who he has hit out at Nick Kenny claimed an impressive straight-sets victory over Stowe Buntz to set up a second-round clash with Raymond van Barneveld, who he has hit out at
Nick Kenny has taken a swipe at Raymond van Barneveld ahead of their PDC World Darts Championship showdown, claiming the Dutch legend “isn’t bothered” about their upcoming encounter.
The 31-year-old has also thrown shade at Peter Wright‘s remarks after his impressive 3-0 triumph against Stowe Buntz on Thursday (December 19) at Ally Pally, which set up a tantalising second round match with Van Barneveld.
And should Kenny topple the darts icon, he might just find himself going toe-to-toe with the current champion Luke Humphries, a prospect both Van Barneveld and Scottish star Wright have been openly speculating about. Wright reckons the seasoned 57-year-old has what it takes to eclipse ‘Cool Hand Luke’.
Post-match, the Newport-born player wasn’t shy about calling out the duo for apparently overlooking him in their second-round predictions, confident as he is about his weekend game: “I fancy my chances against Barney because I’m the underdog at the end of the day. Play my darts, and I’ve got a good chance of winning.
“Littler follows us, it isn’t the game you all wanted (vs Sherrock). But I know when I’m playing, I’m not waiting for a game to finish, so I’ll do exactly the same as I did today: get the preparation right. We’ve both got three darts so we will see what happens,” reports the Express.
Kenny cast doubt on Van Barneveld’s bold prediction to progress far in the tournament, saying, “On paper I’m not going to win that game,” and added, “That’s a big statement to make but like he’s already playing Luke Humphries I watched his interview. He’s not even bothered about who he plays.
“He’s already playing Luke, Peter Wright. I don’t know what he’s on about. I’ve got a task on Saturday night. If I win happy days, if I lose happy days. I’ve done what I need to do tonight. I’m relishing the task. Look at the guy that beat Landman, no one knows who he is.
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“All of the 96, the international qualifiers are all turning up this year. Next year will be even better if he (Barry Hearn) is expanding it to 128. I’m not going to underestimate anyone.”
The darts star then shifted to talk of defying the odds with a fighting spirit: “I’ve beaten a lot of them on the Tour, it don’t hurt, like [Nathan] Aspinall said about writing him off, you want to win a bit more then, but sometimes you can want to win too much, so I had the right level today and I got over the line.”
Kenny was in top form against his American rival, finishing the game with a spectacular 170 checkout. Speaking about his impressive performance, he said: “Sum it up as my favourite word. Buzzing.
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“I thought if I play my tour darts, I’ve had a good year best on PDC tour if I can play like I can I will win. I don’t know what the averages was but my doubles were really good. I’m just absolutely buzzing to win.
“I just thought bugger it just for it. I just thought you could go for treble 18 so I just thought just go for it see what happens. I know he wasn’t on a finish and people have their opinions but I thought just go for it. Then it went in I was like whoa buzzing.”
Mirror – Sport
