Joe Cullen has reacted with fury after being dumped out of the World Darts Championship by Mensur Suljovic, saying the Austrian’s behavior on stage is “not darts”.
Cullen was visibly unhappy with Suljovic’s pace of play and celebrations throughout the match as the 53-year-old came from a 3-1 win in their second round clash at Alexandra Palace on Sunday afternoon.
Suljovic prevailed despite averaging 81.95 to Cullen’s 86.53, and ‘The Gentle’ also hit just 23.7 per cent of his arrows at doubles, to 44.4 per cent from Cullen.
‘The Rockstar’ was unhappy with the time his opponent was taking to recover his arrows and the time he was taking to celebrate, and referee Kirk Bevans was even forced to intervene.
As Cullen left the stage, he stopped, turned and gave Suljovic a hard look as the former World Matchplay runner-up celebrated with the crowd.
Cullen, the 32nd seed, made his displeasure clear, taking to X to write: “If it’s darts I want no part of it! I’ve always liked Mensur off the board but it was plain for all to see!
“I don’t think I’m alone in feeling that way. The old guard will say it’s part of the game, but tell it what you will – it’s CHEATING! It’s not darts.”
Suljovic’s manager did not comment Sky Sports news by contact regarding Cullen’s post.
Veteran Suljovic said he had not apologized to Cullen after their fight during his press conference.
“I say sorry, maybe, maybe to the referee, but for Joe Cullen? Never. ‘You play this, you play this’, everyone plays differently,” said the Austrian.
“I wait maybe 40 seconds before the first dart, but some guys (motions throwing motions) and my head (motions almost getting hit in the head by an arrow). It’s not right.”
Durrant: He broke no rules
Before Cullen left the Ally Pally stage, he gave Suljovic a long look
Three-time Lakeside champion and former Premier League champion Glen Durrant said Suljovic broke no rules and acknowledged how he used “gamesmanship” to enable him to defeat the speedy Cullen.
Durrant said: “You know what Mensur Suljovic is going to do and we try to portray that in the commentary as well. He can go from being very slow to playing very fast and maybe he saw a chink in Joe Cullen’s armour.
“I saw throughout that fight that Joe kept his temper brilliantly and I can understand both sides. Sometimes we go on social media just maybe too much at the moment.
“He didn’t break any rules. The umpires spoke to Mensur during that, about a problem, who handled it very well.
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Suljovic appeared to get a telling off from referee Kirk Bevins for taking too long with his celebrations…
“The bottom line is that Joe Cullen had three sets of darts in the third set. He won sets with an average of 79 – that should bother Joe Cullen more than what he has sometimes termed the gamesmanship side of it.”
Two-time world champion John Part added: “I can absolutely see why he [Cullen] was frustrated, yes, and I’ve felt that way many times when I’ve played against slow players. The bottom line is that you can either make it or you can’t make it, and good players make it.
“I think Joe, at the end of it all, was probably more upset, really, really inside, that he just didn’t do so well. Normally he would. Normally he would laugh at Mensur [Suljovic]’s jokes thinking ‘what do you think you could do there’. Today it somehow worked.
“All around, it didn’t work for Joe. Mensur hit the doubles he was supposed to hit, made the shots, and he’s through. For Joe, it’s just a really tough day at the office.”
Missed opportunity for Cullen?
Cullen has never progressed beyond the fourth round in any of his 16 World Cup appearances, with five-time World Cup semi-finalist Wayne Mardle believing he was more frustrated with his performance than Suljovic’s slow game.
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Wayne Mardle and John Part discuss Joe Cullen’s anger at Mensur Suljovic’s antics in their second round clash
“Joe was gutted because he lost and frustrated because of the way he played and just annoyed with Mensur [Suljovic]jokes,” Mardle told Sky Sports. “Mensur was slow. I saw it and thought, ‘come on Mensur, it’s slow,’ Mensur has been doing this for decades.”
“I can see why Joe got frustrated, but he got more frustrated with his own performance and he’s been beaten with an average of 80. He’s going to be angry, annoyed, resentful – all that, because it was such a winnable game.
“You don’t have Mensur play a worse game than that in this year’s world championships and he beat Joe, that’s why Joe is angry and annoyed, he’s frustrated.”
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