What a day, what a performance from Team Unicorn young guns Arron Monk and Joe Cullen, who have both won prized places at the World Championship!
Monk eventually beat Cullen 5-3 in the final in Wigan to go straight into the 1st Round at the Alexandra Palace, while Cullen wins a spot in the Preliminary Round.
But both were delighted with their fabulous achievements….
“It has been a tough year for me,” admitted Monk. “I’d like to thank Unicorn for standing by me. This is up there with winning the Youth World Championship,” he said.
“I am thrilled,” said Cullen. “The win over Dennis Priestley was amazing and to get back to the World Championship means so much. I was hugely disappointed when I didn’t qualify through the Youth Tour Order of Merit, but this more than makes up for it!”
Incredibly, Cullen beat two-times World Champion Dennis Priestley 5-4 after being 0-4 down! And in the fifth leg, the veteran Yorkshireman started 180, 180 but Cullen managed to storm back and clinch one of the best wins of his career.
In the final, Monk led 4-1 but Cullen got it back to 4-3, before the reigning PDC Unicorn World Champion held his throw to win his spot at the Ally Pally.
It will be his World Championship debut, but of course, he has experience of the biggest stage in world darts, because it was where he beat Michael van Gerwen to win the Youth World title 11 months ago.
Cullen will be a big favourite to reach the 1st Round proper. He has been drawn to play South European qualifier Oliver Ferenc….remember a year ago on his World Championship debut, he ran Terry Jenkins very close, so he has the necessary experience!
On the day, Cullen was in top form – beating John Walton (5-0), Martyn Turner (5-1) and Mark Lawrence (5-2) before that epic quarter-final victory over Priestley, who will now miss his first World Championship tournament in 20 years.
The Bradford youngster then took out Tony Ayres 5-2 to qualify.
Monk was just consistently good all day and hit his doubles when it mattered….in fact, he won all his matches by a 5-3 margin, as he beat Mareno Michels, Prakash Jiwa, Adrian Gray, Nick Fulwell and Chris Thompson, before of course the win over Unicorn stablemate Cullen.
Three times World Championship runner-up Peter Manley came very close…..sadly, the Unicorn ace was edged out 5-3 by Ayres in the quarter-finals when he looked on course to make it through.
Manley enjoyed victories over Lee Palfyreman, Wayne Atwood and Terry Temple but came unstuck against Ayres, but he still played well to give him hope for 2012.
• Team Unicorn youngster Devon Petersen has been drawn to play West European qualifier Jose De Sousa of Spain in the Preliminary Round
• The draw for the Ladbrokes World Championship will take place on Tuesday on Sky Sports News – first news on the Unicorn website
Qualifying results – Q/Finals:
Chris Thompson 5-3 Michael Barnard
Arron Monk 5-3 Nick Fulwell
Joe Cullen 5-4 Dennis Priestley
Tony Ayres 5-3 Peter Manley
Semi-Finals:
Joe Cullen 5-2 Tony Ayres
Arron Monk 5-3 Chris Thomspon
Final:
Arron Monk 5-3 Joe Cullen
By STUART PYKE
Photos courtesy Lawrence Lustig / PDC