Day Five Report of the PDC Winter Series 2020: Joe Cullen triumphs on final day

Day Five of the PDC Winter Series took place on Saturday. It was the final day of a five day series which is taking place in the Ricoh Arena, Coventry from November 10-14. 128 players, seeded and non-seeded, will take part in the series every day until Saturday, with a knockout format, seeing one player crowned winner each day.

After shocks and upsets in these Pro Tours very much on the cards, Day one and two gave us a reminder that sometimes, the quality of some of the world’s best, prevails, as ‘Bully Boy’ Michael Smith bagged the winner’s crown on the first two days. Hitting back on day three, ‘The Iceman’ Gerwyn Price shrugged off his opponents as he bounced back to win his eighth title of the year. Day four saw Peter ‘Snakebite’ Wright add to his growing collection in 2020 and the final day was set up for all out brawl for bragging rights as the Winter Series comes to a close.

Day five is likely to produce some upsets, maybe again for world number one Michael van Gerwen, who despite a speedy recovery to return to darts in day four, hasn’t look anywhere near the ‘Green Machine’ that we know and love, as he fell against ‘Jackpot’ Adrian Lewis in day four’s last 32, for the first time since 2017. The winners so far, have shown that bit of coping under pressure and making sure their throws are consistent throughout each day, slowing paving their path to the business end. Expect more of that sort of action as players have one last chance at the Winter Series, to make their hard work and preparation pay off.

The first round begun on the final day of the PDC Winter Series with Michael Smith producing the standout display, with a 112 average to see off Steve Beaton in a 6-3 victory.

Also through include Krzysztof Ratajski , Nathan Aspinall, James Wade and Ian White with Michael van Gerwen , Peter Wright and Jose de Sousa beginning their day in the second round due to byes for order of merit.

It wasn’t the best ending to the Winter Series for Glen Durrant , Damon Heta and Max Hopp who all crashed out after suffering narrow defeats to begin the day.

Englishman Callan Rydz knocked out world number one, Michael Van Gerwen, who was playing his first match of the day. Rydz continued his flying form in style, winning 6-4 with a 100 average.

As predicted by many, Van Gerwen may have returned prematurely from his back injury, which he picked up at the World Cup and has had a cloud of underperformance over his head since his return to darts, winning just two games and being overcome by ‘Jackpot’ Adrian Lewis and now ‘The Riot’ Callan Rydz at the Winter Series.

There were impressive wins in the second round for Michael Smith and Ian White. Smith saw off the emerging Irish talent, Keane Barry, in a 6-4 victory on the streaming board in a real battle for the double winner this week.

While for White, he faced Lisa Ashton and came through in a tie which saw 11 legs and 11 holds of throw. In the end a 68 checkout concluded it for 'Diamond'.

Peter Wright also came through earlier on with a 100 average to down Steve Brown. The likes of Krzysztof Ratajski, Nathan Aspinall and Devon Petersen all also came through and are into the Last 32.

The final day of action at the PDC Winter Series moved ruthlessly into the last 16, with Peter Wright producing a trademark ‘Snakebite’ display as he breezed past William O’Connor, 6-1. Wright, who claimed the title on day four averaged 103 in his win over ‘The Magpie’ as he looks to repeat the feat of ‘Bully Boy’ Michael Smith and win back-to-back titles in the Winter Series.

Talking of Smith, he was on the other end of the spectrum as ‘Bully Boy’ signed off his Winter Series tournament with a 6-3 loss against Ryan Joyce. A wonderful start to the series as Smith won back-to-back titles on the opening two days but it seemed his energy since was lacklustre and he couldn’t manage to put up a valiant effort to try and claim a third this week. Still, plenty to shout about from ‘Bully Boy’ going into the Grand Slam on Monday.

The performance of the day so far came from David Chisnall, who averaged a whopping 121.7 in his win against David Evans. Chisnall won his legs in 11, 13, 11, 10 and 14 darts while Evans himself played brilliantly but had to produce a 15 and 13 darter to get anything on the board.

With the DartConnect system only being implemented recently, Kyle Anderson's 134.84 still stands but as per Ochepedia, it is the second highest average on record in an 8 leg match.

Another classical performance from ‘Jackpot’ Adrian Lewis in the last 16, as he glided his way to the quarter-finals, for consecutive days with a 6-3 win over giant-killer Callan Rydz, who despite knocking out Michael Van Gerwen, couldn’t prevail against the man who beat the world number one on day four, Adrian Lewis.

Lewis’ confirmed quarter-final opponent was ‘Polish Eagle’ Krzysztof Ratajski, who made his way to the last 8 by beating Ritchie Edhouse 6-2.

There was also no struggle for Peter Wright who saw off average record breaker, Dave Chisnall, winning 6-4 in their tie.

Exits for Dirk van Duijvenbode, Nathan Aspinall and Adam Hunt will sum up topsy-turvy World Series’ for the trio and they will be looking to make amends in the Grand Slam on Monday, as neither player has managed to reach their full potential this week.

There is also the interesting race to the World Championship and the final chance for many before the PDPA Qualifier. Karel Sedlacek and the already qualified Boris Krcmar could have denied John Henderson and Andy Hamilton.

But Daryl Gurney who is looking for a Grand Slam spot and Joe Cullen breezed past them in the first games of the Last 16 to alleviate their fears.

Joe Cullen, who has performed fantastically at the Winter Series this week, saw off Northern Irish Daryl Gurney, 6-5, in their last 8 meeting. Gurney would have wanted to have a good go on the final day after a week of unfortunate events haven’t seen him progress into the final 4 once. As for Cullen, ‘The Rockstar’ has had a memorable week, managing to reach the late stages on multiple days at the World Series and will be looking to go one further then he did on day four, when he was knocked out against eventual winner, Peter Wright, in the semi-finals.

Krzysztof Ratajski saw off Adrian Lewis in their quarter-final tie, winning 6-2, which is quite commendable as ‘Jackpot’ has produced some quality darts in the final two days at the Winter Series. ‘Polish Eagle’ will go on to his first semi-final of the week, where he matches up with Kim Huybrechts for a spot in the final two on day five.

Kim Huybrechts saw off Ryan Joyce 6-4 to reach his first semi-final at the Winter Series. ‘The Hurricane’ is usually a feisty opponent with his best darts coming on day five and he will be getting a very tough challenge when facing Ratajski in the final four.

Andy Boulton flew past the in-form Peter Wright, denying ‘Snakebite’ back-to-back titles in the Winter Series. Boulton was clear underdog but threw all that out of the window, taking advantage of an abnormally poor performance from the world champion. Boulton overcame Wright, winning 6-5 and making sure he was involved in the final four on the final day.

Krzysztof Ratajski took out Kim Huybrechts, with a stunning 7-2 win over the Belgian. ‘Polish Eagle’ Ratajski hasn’t reached peak performance so far this week but saved his best til last as he reached the final for the first time at the Winter Series.

Joe Cullen completed the final line-up with his convincing 7-3 win over Andy Boulton, who although showed a fantastic display of darts against ‘Snakebite’ couldn’t hold off Cullen, who has had performed better than ever this week, it would be surprising if he didn’t press on and use the frustrations of missing out earlier on in the Winter Series, to claim victor in the final on day five.

Joe Cullen claimed the final Winter Series title with win over Krzysztof Ratajski, seeing off ‘Polish Eagle’ 8-4 in the final. Cullen has been there or there abouts pretty much every day at the Winter Series 2020 and made all of his efforts count in the final on day five. A fifth PDC title for ‘The Rockstar’ and his second in two months after his European Tour title win at the International Darts Open.

There wasn’t much to separate the two players in the final, they would do a good job to match the feisty action displayed in day four’s final, between Peter Wright and Jose De Sousa. The ‘Polish Eagle’ held his own in the opening exchanges of the final, holding his throw to go 3-2 up. However, Cullen then struck an 87 out to make it 4-3 and shortly after, 5-3, as he looked to start to get into his stride.

Getting into his stride was something ‘The Rockstar’ had been trying to do throughout the Winter Series and it seemed he was just about bowing out in the final moments. Not this time though as Cullen held on and rediscovered his International Darts open form to win 8-4- handing him the title on the final day.