A BRADFORD darts ace is looking forward to an early start at the oche later this week at a major competition during a busy spell of action for him.

Joe Cullen, of Wyke, is busy preparing for his first round match this Friday in the PDC Cazoo Players Championship finals.

The tournament includes the top 64 players from the 2022 Players Championship Order of Merit competing across two stages at Butlin’s in Minehead, Somerset, from this Friday morning.

 

Cullen begins his quest for the title this Friday morning with a first round clash against Rowby-John Rodriguez. Their match is second on the oche at around 11am, part of a huge opening session on Friday, with Saturday’s double session featuring the second and third rounds. Friday’s action has been moved to an earlier daytime spell due to England’s World Cup clash with USA this Friday (7pm kick-off).

The quarter-finals, semi-finals and final will then be held on Sunday, November 27.

Peter Wright will defend his title against some of the world’s best players.

Cullen is also awaiting the draw for the Cazoo World Darts Championship, set to take place at London’s Alexandra Palace between December 15 and January 3.

This follows his agonising 16-15 defeat to Michael Smith in the Cazoo Grand Slam of Darts last weekend.

Cullen said: “Before the tournament (Grand Slam of Darts) started, the minimum I wanted to get to was the quarter-finals.

“It’s tough, especially as I was 15-13 up. The last three legs from Michael were some great play under pressure.

“In three of my last three TV tournaments now I have been beaten by the eventual winner.

“Getting to the quarter-finals shows I’m in a pretty decent place with an important time of the year.

“It was bittersweet to get to the quarter-finals.

 

“I’ve not got much time to prepare for the Players Championship. I have a pretty rubbish record there.

“It will be a tough first game for me against Rodriquez. He’s having his most successful year.

“I know it’s a cliché, but it really is one game at a time.”

Cullen added he is looking forward to playing in front of the Minehead crowd again in a tournament which will also be shown live on ITV4.

At last weekend’s Grand Slam of Darts, the Bradford thrower stormed to a 10-4 victory over Dirk van Duijvenbode in the last 16 of the tournament.

But he came unstuck against Smith in the quarter-finals in a tight defeat at the event held at Aldersley Leisure Village, Wolverhampton.

Cullen has made it into the last-16 of the Grand Slam of Darts after a 5-3 Group C win against Lisa Ashton.

He started the group stages brightly, thrashing Ritchie Edhouse 5-1 in his opening game.

But Smith then hammered Cullen 5-1 in his second game.

That meant the Wyke thrower had to defeat Ashton, one of only two women competing at the tournament, along with Fallon Sherrock, to be sure of progressing into the knockout stages.

Ashton began the game like a woman possessed, roaring into a 3-1 lead to stun Cullen, the latter recovered to make it 3-3. Cullen took control for a 5-3 win.