Joe Cullen (darts player)

Joseph Michael Cullen is an English professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation events. A PDC Tour Card holder since 2011, Cullen won his first PDC major title at the 2022 Masters, and finished as runner-up in the 2022 Premier League Darts. Cullen has won 12 PDC ranking titles in his professional career, including three European Tour titles.
In his youth career, Cullen won three PDC Youth Tour titles in 2011.

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Career

Early career

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.
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 3–2 in sets 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.

2012

Cullen reached the final of the PDPA World Championship Qualifier, where he was beaten by Arron Monk 5–3. The result meant that he qualified for the preliminary round of the 2012 World Championship, where he beat Oliver Ferenc 4–2 in legs. He played the 10th 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 [2012 PDC PDC European Tour|European Tour Event 1|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 and Colin Lloyd, 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.

2013

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 three-dart 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.

2014

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. 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. 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.

2015

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. It came at the European Darts Grand Prix after he saw off Antonio Alcinas 6–3, Chisnall 6–2 and then averaged an outstanding 110.16 in defeating Raymond van Barneveld 6–2. However, in the quarters he lost 6–4 to Mensur Suljović. Cullen's third and final quarter-final of 2015 was at the 19th Players Championship after he ousted Ronnie Baxter, Ian White, Jamie Caven and Steve West, before losing 6–4 to Stephen Bunting.

2016

He took the final qualifying spot from the Pro Tour Order of Merit for the 2016 World Championship, but lost in the opening round for the sixth year in a row as he won just two legs during a 3–0 defeat to Jelle Klaasen. At the UK Open Cullen beat Mark Frost 9–1, Alan Norris 9–6 and Stephen Bunting 9–7 to play in his first major quarter-final. He produced a fightback from 9–3 down to Peter Wright, but would lose 10–7. This began a rich vein in form for Cullen as he reached the semi-finals of the first Players Championship event and the same stage of the German Darts Masters.
Cullen's second ever PDC final came at the ninth Players Championship, but he was thrashed 6–0 by Benito van de Pas. Another came at the 11th event and he was left waiting for his first professional title as Ian White won 6–3. Cullen qualified for the World Matchplay for the first time in four years and lost 10–5 to Wright in the opening round. Cullen made his debut at the World Grand Prix and he won the first set against Simon Whitlock, before losing six of the next seven legs to bow out. After seeing off Chris Dobey 6–2 at the European Championship he was heavily beaten 10–3 by Phil Taylor in the second round. A 13 dart leg from Cullen saw him squeeze past Anderson in to the quarter-finals of the non-ranking World Series of Darts Finals, where he lost to Wright in a televised match for the third time in 2016, this time 10–7. Cullen eased past Steve Brown 6–1 and Rowby-John Rodriguez 6–0 at the Players Championship Finals, but Raymond van Barneveld knocked him out 10–2 in the third round.

2017

After breaking into the top 32 on the Order of Merit during 2016, it meant Cullen was a seeded player at the World Championship for the first time in his career. He beat Corey Cadby 3–1 to finally reach the second round of the tournament at the seventh time of asking, but went on to lose 4–0 to two-time winner of the event Adrian Lewis in the next round.
Cullen joined the Professional Dart Players Association's 9 Dart Club for the first time, after getting a nine-dart finish in the second round of the 2017 PDC Players Championship 4 against Jim Brown.
Cullen claimed his first PDC Pro Tour title in April at the eighth Players Championship. He was 4–1 up in the final, before Daryl Gurney squared the match at 5–5. Gurney missed one match dart and Cullen won on double four and said afterwards that he had relied on his natural talent in the past, but in the last year he had also been working very hard on his game. A week after withdrawing from his third round match at the European Darts Open due to his father suffering a heart attack, he earned his second PDC title at Players Championship 16 by defeating Zoran Lerchbacher 6–4 in the final. He dedicated the victory to his father, stating: "He'd be proud of me. Hopefully he's on the mend now, he's back home and obviously things are looking up so I wanted to do it for him."

2018

Cullen was the 19th seed at the 2018 World Championship but suffered a first-round 3–2 defeat to Jermaine Wattimena, missing four match darts in the process. At the World Matchplay in July, he achieved his first win at the event with a 10–3 triumph over Gerwyn Price, before another wide victory in the second round against Daryl Gurney, defeating the fifth seed 11–3. This set up a quarter-final clash with Gary Anderson. After missing darts to send the contest to a sudden death leg, Cullen was beaten by Anderson 19–17. Cullen reached his first major semi-final at the European Championship by eliminating reigning world champion Rob Cross. He led his semi-final match against Simon Whitlock 10–7 but after missing a match dart, he allowed Whitlock to come back and win 11–10.

2021

Cullen won the opening Players Championship event of the 2021 PDC Pro Tour season. He defeated Gabriel Clemens in the quarter-finals and Nathan Aspinall in the semi-finals, before beating Jonny Clayton 8–7 in the final. He won a second title at Players Championship 13 by defeating world champion Gerwyn Price 8–6 in the final. Cullen was a semi-finalist at the European Championship in October, beating Mensur Suljović 10–7 in the quarter-finals before losing to eventual champion Rob Cross 11–3 in the semi-finals.

2022

Entering the 2022 PDC World Darts Championship ranked 13th in the world, Cullen defeated Jim Williams 3–2 in the second round before losing 3–4 to debutant Martijn Kleermaker in the third round. On 30 January 2022, Cullen won a first televised PDC title when he won the 2022 Masters. Cullen defeated Daryl Gurney, Gary Anderson 10–1 with an average of 106.30, Michael van Gerwen and José de Sousa en route to the final. Despite missing ten match darts, he defeated Dave Chisnall 11–9 to secure his first televised PDC title.
Cullen joined the Professional Dart Players Association's 9 Dart Club for the second time, after getting a nine-dart finish in the third round of the 2022 PDC Players Championship 5 against James Wilson.
Cullen competed in his debut season in the Premier League in 2022; he finished 4th in the table and qualified for finals night on the last night of league play, by defeating Peter Wright in his final match. On 13 June, at finals night in Berlin, Cullen defeated Jonny Clayton 10–4 in the semi-finals to secure a place in the final against Michael van Gerwen, which he lost 11–10 after missing a match dart.

2023

Cullen made it to the fourth round of the 2023 PDC World Darts Championship. He was knocked out by the eventual winner Michael Smith.
Cullen reached back-to-back ranking major semi-finals at the World Matchplay and the World Grand Prix. His run to his first World Matchplay semi-final included a 13–11 win over tournament favourite Gerwyn Price in the second round. He defeated Daryl Gurney 16–11 to progress to the last four, where he faced Nathan Aspinall. Cullen was beaten 17–9. He also reached his maiden World Grand Prix semi-final after wins against Mike De Decker, Ross Smith and Chris Dobey. He was eliminated following a 4–0 defeat to Luke Humphries.

2024

Cullen reached the fourth round of the 2024 World Championship, where he faced Luke Humphries. Tied at 3–3 in sets, Cullen missed two darts at double 18 to win the match. The winner was decided in a sudden death leg, with Humphries hitting double 10 to win the final set 6–5 in legs and eliminate Cullen in a dramatic 4–3 victory.
Cullen reached two ranking finals during the year. He was the runner-up at the Austrian Darts Open, losing the final 8–4 to Luke Littler. He also reached the final at Players Championship 17 but he was beaten 8–6 by Josh Rock. His best performance at a major event during the year was a quarter-final at the World Grand Prix.

2025

Cullen qualified for the 2025 PDC World Darts Championship as the number 23 seed, receiving a bye to the second round due to his placement in the top 32, where he whitewashed Wessel Nijman 3–0 in sets. Following the victory, Cullen caused controversy for his post-match interview and press conference. He gave noticeably short answers in his interview with Sky Sports before prematurely leaving his press conference, citing a lack of respect shown to him by the media and bookmakers. He lost to Gerwyn Price in a sudden death leg in the third round. Cullen had trailed 3–0 but won the next three sets to level the match at 3–3 to force the last-set decider. The match was described as a "thriller" and an "Alexandra Palace classic".
He reached the final at the opening Players Championship event of the 2025 PDC Pro Tour season. His run to the final included wins against reigning World Champion Luke Littler, 6–3 in the last 32, and world number one Luke Humphries, 7–6 in the semi-finals. Cullen lost to Rob Cross 8–3 in the final. He was able to win his first PDC title since 2022 at Players Championship 5, coming back from 7–4 down and surviving six missed match darts from opponent Gian van Veen to win the final 8–7. He won a second title at Players Championship 27 by defeating Gerwyn Price 8–7 in the final.

Personal life

Cullen originally worked as a postman but quit his job to focus on darts full-time.
Cullen is a supporter of rugby league club Wigan Warriors, and conducted the draw for the Challenge Cup in 2024 alongside Michael Smith. He is also a supporter of English football club Manchester United.