Joe Cullen made it a hattrick on the Euro Tour in the Professional Darts Corporation after beating William O’Connor 8-2 to win the Hungarian Darts Trophy.
The Winmau man opened the final day of action on Sunday beating Peter Wright’s conqueror Jim Williams 6-4 on the oche before victories over Rusty-Jake Rodriguez and Dave Chisnall put the Rockstar into his first ET Final of 2022.
The Premier League finalist included three maximums in the Grand Final and found a checkout percentage of 50% including a 100 finish to break throw in the second leg.
The Bradford man had defeated Chizzy to win the Masters at the start of the year and put in a good performance against the World Number 16 again, finding six maximums and a 98.55 average in Hungary.
Cullen missed six darts at double and found the highest checkout of the match in the seventh leg, finding a 106 finish for a 4-3 lead. The 33-year-old went on to win the match 7-6 finishing 81 on double thirteen last dart in the deciding thirteenth leg of the match.
William O’Connor can be proud of his achievements after he reached his first Euro Tour Final of the year beating the likes of US Darts Masters champion Michael Smith in a last leg decider, before three maximums in his Quarter Final against Jose de Sousa in a 6-4 win for the Irishman.
Ryan Meikle sent messages out to the rest of the PDC field after his strong weekend in Budapest, coming through against Gabriel Clemens in Friday’s evening session.
The Barber went on to reach the Quarter Finals after victories over Krzysztof Ratajski on the Saturday before a last leg decider 6-5 win over Simon Whitlock in the Last 16. The Wizard beat Michael van Gerwen by the same score line the day before but couldn’t follow up the win on Sunday against the Red Dragon man.
The 26-year-old has enjoyed a good year on the PDC Circuit after losing in the World Championship to Peter Wright at the Second-Round stage last December, including runs to the Last 16 in the Players Championship events as well as his first Quarter Final on the Euro Tour this weekend.
Nathan Aspinall a two-time winner on the Pro Tour reached the Semi Finals this weekend losing out to William O’Connor 7-5. The Asp defeated Luke Humphries at the World Matchplay with Cool Hand going into the tournament as one of the tournament favourites after his year on the Pro Tour and Euro Tour.
The Stockport man averaged just shy of a ton to beat Ryan Meikle 6-5 in the Quarter Finals including five maximums and a 121 finish in the tenth leg to break throw and have the darts in the deciding leg of the match.
Next week sees the eleventh Euro Tour of the year returning to Germany for the Interwetten German Darts Open in Jena with Joe Cullen hoping for a double success on the Euro Tour, knowing full well what’s required having been one of the best in 2021.
Hungarian Darts Trophy Results:
Last 16:
Joe Cullen (11) 6-4 Jim Williams
Rusty-Jake Rodriguez 6-4 Madars Razma
Josh Rock 6-5 Dirk van Duijvenbode (10)
Dave Chisnall 6-3 Boris Krcmar
Jose de Sousa (12) 6-4 Jeffrey de Zwaan
William O’Connor 6-5 Michael Smith (4)
Nathan Aspinall (9) 6-4 Karel Sedlacek
Ryan Meikle 6-5 Simon Whitlock
Quarter Finals:
Joe Cullen (11) 6-4 Rusty-Jake Rodriguez
Dave Chisnall 6-0 Josh Rock
William O’Connor 6-4 Jose de Sousa (12)
Nathan Aspinall (9) 6-5 Ryan Meikle
Semi Finals:
Joe Cullen (11) 7-6 Dave Chisnall
William O’Connor 7-5 Nathan Aspinall (9)
Final:
Joe Cullen (11) 8-2 William O’Connor
—–ENDS—–
Images: PDC
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