REBORN Raymond van Barneveld is looking to follow up a weekend double with victory over Simon Whitlock when the McCoy’s Premier League Darts visits Bournemouth tonight.

The Dutch star has enjoyed a fine start to 2012 following a disastrous end to last year, when he lost to unknown qualifier James Richardson in the World Championship and dropped down to ninth in the world rankings.

He sits third in the Premier League able with four games remaining and hit a nine-dart finish alongside back-to-back victories in Speedy Services UK Open qualifiers in Barnsley last weekend.

The achievement saw him join an elite group of players – including Phil Taylor, Adrian Lewis and Gary Anderson – to have won both PDC events in a weekend, with van Barneveld unbeaten in 14 matches across two days.

“From January, I said to myself that I was going to play more tournaments on the floor away from TV,” said van Barneveld. “These tournaments are hard to win and I was really over the moon to win both last weekend.

“I said that I had to play more against the best players in the world to get more focus and self-belief and it was a big help.”

Whitlock has won his past two games to move clear in second place in the Premier League table on 12 points, two ahead of van Barneveld as they prepare to meet in Bournemouth.

Whitlock admits he is relishing the challenge of playing the reinvigorated Dutchman in front of a sell-out crowd in Dorset.

“Barney is a five-time world champion and he had a bad couple of years, but it is good to see him play well again,” said the Australian. “We all love Raymond and it makes darts interesting again with him playing well.

“Every time we play it’s a ding-dong battle. We’ve put on some good shows in the last couple of years and I think this will be another. Every week is big from now on – every point or two points is very big. I think I need four more points to make sure I make the semis because I think I need a minimum of 15 points.”

• Don’t miss tomorrow’s Echo for full coverage and pictures from the Bournemouth leg of the McCoy’s Premier League