Joe Cullen makes history en route to final of Players Championship 1
PDC
The opening Players Championship event of 2025 saw a welcome and much needed return to form for Joe Cullen. After a number of impressive performances during the day, 'The Rockstar' eventually fell to a rampant Rob Cross in the final, narrowly missing out on Pro Tour glory to kick start his 2025 season.
As mentioned though, en route to the final in Wigan on Monday, Cullen put in a number of standout performances. Starting the day off with 6-5 wins over Greg Ritchie and Scott Williams, Cullen then dispatched world champion Luke Littler in the last 32. After Dutchmen Gian van Veen and Richard Veenstra were then beaten, Cullen pulled another big performance out of the bag to see off world number one Luke Humphries in the semi-finals 7-6.
In doing so, Cullen wrote himself a small piece of PDC history, as according to darts' stats guru FebsData on X (Twitter), he became the first player ever to beat both Littler and Humphries in the same tournament (not including Premier League).
Whilst it ultimately wasn't to be for Cullen in the final against Cross, 'The Rockstar' and the rest of the PDC Pro Tour will get another chance to take a tournament win later this afternoon at Players Championship 2.
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Joe Cullen is the first player to beat both Humphries and Littler in the same event (excluding PL, of course)
— FEBsData (@FEBsData) February 10, 2025
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- Beau also skipped Players Championships 7 & 8 next week, and PC 3 & 4 four weeks ago. If she next chooses to miss the Women's Series and PC 13 & 14 in mid-April then we can make a fair guess as to her reason.Scoobedybop13-03-2025
- I've commented before,Phil should let us all remember how great he was,and leave your darts in the drawer. Another humiliation will tarnish everything,you couldn't even beat old blokes who you would have beaten before the game started !!rick6712-03-2025
- I've commented before,Phil should let us all remember how great he was,and leave your darts in the drawer. Another humiliation will tarnish everything,you couldn't even beat old blokes who you would have beaten before the game started !!rick6712-03-2025
- Aspinall was a no-show: Carl Sneyd steps in from the Challenge Tour.Scoobedybop11-03-2025
- Likewise, I have always been a fan of Mervyn and with this worry on his mind, it explains why his form and ranking plummeted. It is really sad to hear this, often chatted to Mervyn and Tracey during the Lakeside days, both are lovely people. It does seem naive not acknowledging the fact it was earnings, surely there must be others in the same situation. I really hope the Kings can get through this....would a go fund me be permittedrichieburnettrocks11-03-2025
- I always like Merv,but he does he seems slightly naive with his comments. I wish you all the best, hope you can get sorted,and try and get back to a decent game,a bit of money.....and get rid of the dogs,if that's your main concern,I believe your priorities may be slightly wrongrick6710-03-2025
- What’s with the dogs element to this story, trying to pull at the heart strings? Just goes to show that being a good dart player does not equate to being that bright. Seriously, ‘I thought you didn’t have to pay tax on winnings’ , your a pro dart player and its your line of work, your not playing the lottery or placing a bet. I think it was Phil Taylor who said you should put a third to one side of all winnings into a bank account, obviously Merv was wearing his earplugs at the time.Mysstree10-03-2025
- The thing is... the folks who "humiliated" Taylor in the Seniors Events never really achieved anything in the important events - like Taylor did. Taylor had/has nothing to prove... and beating Taylor after he had retired is of zero value. Taylor in his prime would have made easy work of all of them. Cheers.MrYnyslas197107-03-2025
- Taylor was humiliated in the seniors events,so he really has nothing to lose by playing littler. I think he should put his darts away,and let us remember what a great player he wasrick6706-03-2025
- actually, since you're asking... yes. yes i do.colt06-03-2025