Huntly’s John Henderson says he would like to see Raymond van Barneveld reconsider retiring ahead of starting his PDC World Championship campaign.
The Highland takes on James Richardson in the second round tomorrow afternoon at London’s Alexandra Palace.
Darts legend van Barneveld announced 13 months ago that he planned to retire after this tournament and he has following defeat to American Darin Young on Saturday.
However, Henderson – who has gone toe-to-toe with him on the oche in both the BDO and PDC – would like to see the five-time world champion reconsider.
He said: “I’d like to see Raymond change his mind. We’ve spent quite a bit of time together and know each other from back in the BDO days.
“I’ve played him a couple of times on TV and a couple of times in floor tournaments and we’ve both beaten each other.
“He has a presence when he walks into the room, there’s only certain players have that. Phil Taylor had it, Michael van Gerwen has got it now and Raymond has it as well.
“Even those of us who are around him every week still think ‘oh here’s Barney’ when he walks into the room.
“Some people maybe won’t miss him – but I really will because he’s been good to me over the years and has given me a lot of good advice.
“It would have been great to see him have a good run this year, but sadly it wasn’t to be.
“I hope he discovers that he’ll miss darts and decides to carry on, but it seems like he has made his mind up.”
Henderson believes van Barneveld has been crucial to increasing the popularity of darts both in the Netherlands and around the world.
He added: “Raymond is the reason so many good Dutch players are now in the game. He was the number one player from Holland for so long, the flag bearer. He’s a five-time world champion and he put darts on the map in Holland.
“Michael has been inspired by Barney and has taken on the mantle.
“Darts is a huge sport in Holland and I would say a lot of that is because of Raymond, he was the first world champion and he started the ball rolling.”
Henderson travelled to London yesterday in preparation for his clash with Richardson, whose ranked 62nd in the world.
He said: “People will say ‘you’ll win that’ because they haven’t heard of him, but he’s a good player.”