Joe Cullen

Joseph Cullen (born 13 July 1989) is an English professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events.

He won three Youth Tour tournaments in his early career and has qualified for the PDC World Championship twelve times, winning only thrice in the first round.

Cullen first came to prominence in 2008 when he qualified for the UK Open.

He defeated Mark Stapleton and Dennis Smith before Chris Mason defeated him in the last 64.

Following his performances at Bolton, he joined the PDC circuit.

He also reached the final of the New Kids on the Oche tournament, losing to Arron Monk.

In 2009, Cullen decided to leave his job as a postman to concentrate on a career in darts.

Cullen had another decent run at the 2010 UK Open.

He knocked out Darren Latham and Mike Nott before losing to Mervyn King, again in the last 64.

Later that year, he defeated Phil Taylor in the last 16 of the John McEvoy Gold Dart Classic in Killarney, eventually losing in the quarter-finals to Colin Osborne.

Cullen qualified for his first PDC World Darts Championship in 2011.

He lost narrowly to Terry Jenkins by 3 sets to 2 in the first round.

In April, Cullen reached his first PDC Pro Tour final at the sixth UK Open Qualifier in Barnsley, losing 6–1 to Taylor.

He reached the final of the PDPA World Championship Qualifier, where he was beaten 5–3 by Arron Monk.

At the 11th Players Championship of the year he reached the semi-finals of a ranking PDC event for the first in over two years, where he was defeated 6–3 by Gary Anderson.

The result meant that he qualified for the preliminary round of the 2012 World Championship, where he beat Oliver Ferenc of Serbia by 4 legs to 2.

He played number 10 seed Terry Jenkins in the first round for the second successive year and was beaten 3–0, winning just three legs in the match.

In April, he earned a place in the Austrian Darts Open by defeating Sam Hill and John Bowles in the UK qualifier.

He played Brendan Dolan in the first round and won 6–4, and then continued his run by beating Simon Whitlock 6–4, despite his opponent hitting a nine darter.

Cullen defeated Mark Walsh to make the quarter-finals, where he was this time on the wrong end of a 6–4 scoreline as he lost to eventual winner Justin Pipe.

Cullen's best result of the season came a week after this as he won through to the semi-finals of the final UK Open Qualifier, but was then whitewashed 6–0 by Pipe.

He also qualified for the third European Tour event, the European Darts Open and beat Jenkins 6–1 in the first round in Düsseldorf, before losing to Johnny Haines 6–5 in round two.

Cullen reached the last 16 of the UK Open with victories over Jim Walker (9–4) and Colin Lloyd (9–8), but then let a 4–0 and 5–1 lead against Jamie Caven slip to lose 9–8.

He qualified for the World Matchplay for the first time and lost to Pipe 10–4 in the first round.

Cullen qualified for the 2013 World Championship by finishing 36th on the 2012 ProTour Order of Merit, claiming the fifth of sixteen spots that were available for the highest non-qualified players.

He lost 3–0 to John Part in the first round, with the Canadian's superior finishing being the difference between the players.

Cullen was ranked world number 41 after the tournament.

He lost 9–5 to Lee Palfreyman in the third round of the UK Open.

At the Austrian Darts Open Cullen beat Kim Huybrechts 6–4 and then averaged a stunning 111.84 average in seeing off Stuart Kellett 6–1.

He reached the quarter-finals of this event for the second year running by surviving one match dart from Raymond van Barneveld to win 6–5, but was then beaten 6–0 by Mervyn King.

Cullen reached three other quarter-finals in floor events during the year but lost in each one.

Cullen qualified for the 2014 World Championship through the ProTour Order of Merit once again and faced Peter Wright in the first round.

Cullen took out a 147 finish to level the opening set with Wright on 12 but lost the decider and also lost the final leg in the second set and was beaten 3–0.

He missed out on playing in the UK Open for the first time in his career as he failed to advance beyond the last 128 in any of the six qualifiers.

Cullen lost 3–1 to reigning champion Michael van Gerwen in the first round of the 2015 World Championship, after every set had gone to a deciding leg which included Cullen missing two darts for the second set.

He was knocked out in the third round of the UK Open 9–6 by Eddie Dootson.

Cullen lost in the quarter-finals of the first Players Championship 6–0 to Dave Chisnall and had to wait until October for another one.

Cullen reached his first major quarter-final at the 2016 UK Open and won his first PDC Pro Tour title in 2017.

He won his first televised title at the 2022 Masters.

Cullen won through to the same stage of the 16th event with impressive victories over Dave Chisnall, Andy Hamilton and Michael van Gerwen, but this time lost 6–3 to Brendan Dolan.