JOE Cullen has had a poor year by his standards, but the Bradford darts star has one final chance to shine in a major before the Worlds next month.

He will be in action at Minehead this weekend for the Players’ Championship, with his opener coming against fifth seed Dave Chisnall tomorrow afternoon.

Chisnall is coming to the game after appearing at last week’s Grand Slam of Darts major, where a whole host of top names missed out, including Cullen, Gerwyn Price, Nathan Aspinall, Jonny Clayton, Chris Dobey and Damon Heta, following a selection process the former feels is “flawed”.

Cullen was speaking to the T&A from a snowy Finland, where he was taking part in an exhibition event, with him flying back today and heading straight to Minehead.

The Wyke ace told us: “It’s good if you can have a decent run at the Players ahead of the Worlds, but I suppose that’s true with any tournament.

“I do like Minehead, I’ve done okay there and rubbish there in the past, but it’s an enjoyable place to go, with a good venue to play darts and nice apartments to stay in.

“I know I can do well here, having got to the last-eight twice in the last four years, so I’ll be aiming for that as a minimum this time.

“My form’s been up and down over the last few months, but at some point it will come back, so hopefully I have a good run this weekend.”

After a disappointing season on the Pro Tour, Cullen only snuck into this tournament as the 60th seed, almost missing out on two majors in a row.

He said: “With 64 players getting in, it meant I made it despite not having the best time on the Pro Tour.

“I don’t think it matters really if you’re number one or 64 here, it’s pretty random and spread out.

“It’ll be a good test facing Chizzy first up, and I’ll be on the main stage out of the two, which I prefer.

“It should be a good game, we’ve beaten each other loads of times down the years, so I’m looking forward to it.”

Chisnall will be relishing the encounter too, as he looks to try and bounce back from a disappointing group stage exit at the Grand Slam in Wolverhampton.

Dave Chisnall lost all three of his group games at the Grand Slam earlier this month, so has something of a point to prove tomorrow.Dave Chisnall lost all three of his group games at the Grand Slam earlier this month, so has something of a point to prove tomorrow. (Image: Zac Goodwin/PA Wire.)

That was a tournament Cullen and a whole host of players in the world’s top 32 missed out on, due to a qualifying process that allowed several more obscure names to take their places in the Black Country instead.

The Bradford man said: “I think the criteria for the Grand Slam has always been flawed, and I said that when I was playing in the event.

“This year, James Wade, Danny Noppert and Ross Smith all got through the final qualifier, but before that, you were looking at 11 of the world’s top 20 missing out.

“I think it needs looking at for next year, so hopefully the PDC (Professional Darts Corporation) address it.

“It was a major where only seven of the world’s top 10 were playing, so you were naturally going to have a few people saying it wasn’t the best field.

“The results reflected that and you had a couple of surprise deep runners in Martin Lukeman and Mickey Mansell.

“But fair play to them, they got their opportunity and they took it.”