Joe Cullen provided one of the most explosive moments of last year’s World Darts Championship, storming out of a press conference after a painful Sky Sports interview. Having beaten Wessel Nijman 3-0 in the second round, Cullen gave Sky darts reporter Davies tetchy one-word answers during an awkward on-stage exchange.
He then walked out of his press conference just a few seconds after sitting down, accusing the assembled media of showing him a lack of respect. Cullen, one of the 32 seeds, had been irked after being made the underdog for the match against the up-and-coming Dutchman. He said: “I don’t know Wessel personally but I think the surrounding of the media led to his demise a little bit.
“I’ve struggled this year on the oche and off the oche so to find a performance like that… To be honest, I’ve got you guys to thank because I don’t think I would have played like that if I had read some of the nonsense that I read beforehand.
“The media attention that Wessel has got – again, this is not a reflection on him – he seems like a fantastic kid. The way I’ve been treated with the media and things like that…
“I know you guys have no control of the bookies, but I’ve been shown no respect so I won’t share any respect to any of you guys tonight. I’m going to go home. Cheers.”
Davies got even less out of the Cullen during their on-stage exchange but insists she has no hard feelings towards the Yorkshire thrower. She said earlier this year: “As [Sky Sports commentator] Stuart Pyke was throwing to me, he did whisper in my ear that he wasn’t going to give me anything in that interview.
“But, look, I respect Joe, I get on with Joe. I have no bad feelings about that at all. He wanted to put his point across.
“Do I think it would have been better for him to take the opportunity to say something like, ‘look, you all doubted me, nobody thought I could do this, now I’ve proved you all wrong’?
“Yes, I do. As journalists, we all know one of the hardest things to deal with is someone giving you one-word answers because you’ve got very little time to scrape around in your head [for questions]. But I found it a little bit funny, to be honest.”
Cullen, who is again the 32nd and final seed for the tournament, begins his 2025/26 campaign against Bradley Brooks on Sunday afternoon.
