WORLD Darts Championship season is upon us again and Bradford thrower, Joe Cullen is targeting a minimum of a last-eight finish at the prestigious tournament.

As one of the top 32 players (rank 14) from the PDC Order of Merit, Cullen is seeded straight through to round two, alongside the other best players in the world.

First round action gets underway this evening at ‘Ally Pally’, with 96 stars from across the globe competing from December 15 – January 3 to achieve a lifetime dream of becoming world champion. Current holder Michael Smith will be looking to get his title defence off to a fast start against Kevin Doets/ Stowe Buntz tonight.

Wyke star, Cullen kicks off his tournament on Sunday evening, when he takes on either Jules van Dongen or Darren Penhall, and he’s hoping that a victory can give him the springboard to have a strong tournament.

Looking ahead to his World Darts Championship return, Cullen said to the T&A: “It’s a competition that every player looks forward to, but at the same time it’s easy to get anxious for because you want to do well.

“My first few years there were terrible; I don’t think I won a game for the first five or six times I attended the tournament, but I’ve settled into it now and I understand how to approach it.

“The key thing is that you get past the first game, especially this year because I’ll be playing the winner of van Dongen and Penhall, so they’ll have played on stage the night before. So, if I get through that then I can relax because I won’t be playing until after Christmas this time around.”

After making it through to round-four last year, when he was knocked out by title-holder Smith, Cullen admitted that he hopes to go further in the 2023-2024 campaign.

He said: “I don’t think there’s a preference on who I’d like to face in the second round, whether it’s Van Dongen or Penhall; both will be challenging because they’ve both played some good darts this year. A win is what I’ll be aiming for and then we can regroup, look at the draw and go from there.

“You get a lot of players saying that winning the tournament is the only way success can be viewed. I get that, and it would be, but after the few poor years I had after I made my debut at the tournament, I’ve got progressively better and carried on going, so I’ll be looking to go one better again this time around.

“If seeding goes to plan, then I’ll pair up with Luke Humphries (ranked 3rd in the world) in the last-16, so I’ll have to do something special to get past him. But my minimum target really is to make the last-eight of the competition.”

Bradford Telegraph and Argus: Cullen is targeting a last-eight finish as a minimum this time around Cullen is targeting a last-eight finish as a minimum this time around (Image: Taylor Lanning/PDC.)

Cullen’s tie against van Dongen/Penhall has been scheduled in the early stages of the competition, whereas last year, his second-round victory over Ricky Evans (3-1 winner) was played on December 23 and finished at 11pm.

A December 17 start this time around means that Cullen, if he claims victory, won’t be in action until December 27 at the earliest (date when round three fixtures start), and he admitted that it will be a welcome treat for him over the festive period.

He said: “It will be nice because I’ve got the best-part of a week off, providing I get the win of course, so it will be good to spend time with my children over the Christmas period because the time I had off last year was a bit more limited due to the date of my second-round fixture.

“Being from the UK makes it fairly easy to get up north from London, so I’ll be able to come back to Bradford for a week or so to spend time with family and friends, before travelling back south for the next rounds. If I do win, post-Christmas, I’ll stay in London.

“If I lose on Sunday, then I might be sulking over Christmas, who knows,” joked Cullen.