I was a postman before becoming a darts star, I’m known as the Rockstar and beat Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor when I was 21
pAnd the decision had paid dividends by the time he was 21 as he defeated the legendary a href=https://www.thesun.co.uk/who/phil-taylor/Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor/a./p
figure id=attachment_23890724 class=wp-caption alignnone style=width: 970pximg decoding=async src=https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/105f5bae-50ef-4a8d-aa20-9117390271be.jpg?strip=allamp;w=960 alt= class=alignnone size-thesun-article-image wp-image-23890724 width=960 height=635 /figcaption class=wp-caption-textJoe Cullen was a postman before embarking on his darts dream/figcaptionfigcreditGetty/figcredit/figure
figure id=attachment_23890671 class=wp-caption alignnone style=width: 970pximg decoding=async loading=lazy src=https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/joe-cullen-england-action-terry-843963947.jpg?strip=allamp;w=960 alt= class=alignnone size-thesun-article-image wp-image-23890671 width=960 height=640 /figcaption class=wp-caption-text/figcaptionfigcreditGetty/figcredit/figureHe beat Phil Taylor in 2010 as a fresh-faced youngster[/caption]
pJoe Cullen, 34, grew up in Bradford but had no idea that his darts hobby would lead to becoming a full-time career./p
pAfter leaving education, he secured a job as a local postman./p
pBut Cullen soon realised he had a talent with the arrows./p
pAnd that led to him deciding to give up delivering parcels in 2009 in order to follow his dream of making it in darts./p
pWithin 12 months he found himself up against iconic Taylor, who won a record 85 major titles and 16 World Championships./p
pHowever, instead of being left star-struck, Cullen went on to beat the legend in the John McEvoy Gold Dart Classic in Killarney./p
pAfterwards he outlined his ambition to one day reach the a href=https://www.thesun.co.uk/topic/darts-premier-league/Premier League/a #8211; a feat he achieved in 2022./p
pAnd it was almost a fairytale start after he finished fourth in the table to qualify for finals night on the last night of league play./p
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pCullen defeated Jonny Clayton 10-4 in the semi-finals to then secure a place in the final against Michael van Gerwen./p
pBut toppling a href=https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/18877325/michael-van-gerwen-305k-jackpot-premier-league/MVG proved to be one step too far as he was edged out 11-10/a to finish as runner-up./p
pCullen did win The Masters last year as he beat Dave Chisnall 11-9 for the prize./p
pAnd that was followed by him making his 13th-straight PDC World Darts Championship appearance last winter./p
pBut despite matching his career best performance at Ally Pally, he was knocked out in the last-16 by eventual winner Michael Smith./p
pCullen revealed in 2021 that he had a href=https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/17111922/darts-joe-cullen-heartbroken/tragically lost his mother to cancer while speaking to Sun Sport/a./p
pAnd behind the scenes, away from the intensity of the oche, the star has endured an extremely difficult time./p
pHe has a number of tattoos, but he explained that the glasses one behind his ear is a tribute to his cousin, who passed away at the age of 38 nearly four years ago./p
pCullen said: “One day he woke up with a headache – and then he had a brain haemorrhage. I used to see him 2-3 times a week./p
p“He was nicknamed four eyes. I was going to get Shaun across my knuckles because that was his name. But I thought the glasses were more of a fitting tribute./p
p“In the same year that Shaun died, we lost darts player James Barton, who had been on the Tour. Then one of my best friends took his own life last March.”/p