Joe Cullen has eased into the Quarter - Final at the
Darts">Grand Slam of Darts after beating an out of sorts
Dirk van Duijvenbode 10-4.
Rounding off an incredible night of darts it was the Rockstar vs the Titan, 15th vs 16th in the world rankings, with a quarter-final tie against Michael Smith the winners' prize.
There was early double trouble for van Duijvenbode as the Dutchman missed a handful of darts for the opening leg before Cullen took out D8 to draw first blood. After the Rockstar would double his advantage on D8 again, van Duijvenbode cleaned up an 86 out to get on the board at 1-2. Looking by far the more settled of the two however, Cullen would stretch into a 4-1 lead at the first break.
More scrappy finishing in the first leg after the break, Cullen this time the man to miss, allowing van Duijvenbode to checkout 25 for an 18-dart break of throw. A much better 104 finish in the following leg though saw Cullen restore his 3-leg lead. Not letting up, Cullen would pin a second ton-plus finish to race into a 7-2 lead with a 124 checkout on the bull and after nailing D9 in the last leg of the session it would be 8-2 in Cullen's favour at the 2nd break.
At the start of the third session, van Duijvenbode had a dart at D10 to pull a leg back but missed, letting Cullen take out 92 with the minimum of fuss to go one away from victory. The Titan pinned D9 last dart in hand to keep his hopes alive at 3-9 but after missing 2 darts to get another leg back Cullen checked out D7, booking his place in the last eight against Michael Smith.