World Darts Championships: Day 4 Afternoon - Dom Taylor and Joe Cullen steal the show - 180UK.com
Darts News PDC World Championships Sarah Leaver

World Darts Championships: Day 4 Afternoon – Dom Taylor and Joe Cullen steal the show

15 December 2025
Tom Sansom

The fourth day of the PDC World Darts Championships ignited at Ally Pally, with plenty of thrills and spills in store as the tournament commenced another exciting day of action.

By Sarah Leaver

MATCH 1: Ritchie Edhouse (27) vs Jonny Tata

27th seed Ritchie Edhouse took the first two legs of the afternoon after New Zealand’s Jonny Tata failed to hit any of his doubles. Tata fought back to equalise and with the help of the throw he took out double 16 to win the set.

Edhouse’s good form of the doubles depleted, missing double 16 to gift Tata the first leg of the second set, which was then cancelled out by the Englishman, but Tata stood strong, winning the next two legs and his second set.

Tata carried on as normal, hitting a 180 and easily taking the first leg from Edhouse, and at this point it looked like another seeded player was going to be falling at the first hurdle.

But Edhouse started to put the pressure on the New Zealander, equalising the legs once again but Tata just didn’t stop, putting himself back ahead and then hitting double 10 to win the match.

MATCH 1: Ritchie Edhouse 3 Jonny Tata 0

MATCH 2: Dom Taylor vs Oskar Lukasiak

Two debutants in Dom Taylor and Oskar Lukasiak faced off in the second match of the day, with Taylor eventually taking out double four to win the leg. He doubled his lead not long after and then tripled it to take the set.

Taylor’s fine form continued, effortlessly taking the second set but Lukasiak got himself back in the game in the third set, winning his first leg, but ultimately Taylor was too much for him. After nearly hitting a 170-checkout to win it, the 27-year-old took out a smaller fish in 25 to send himself through to the second round.

RESULT: Dom Taylor 3 Oskar Lukasiak 0

MATCH 3: Richard Veenstra vs Nitin Kumar

Nitin Kumar took two legs, putting himself one away from the opening set, but Richard Veenstra hit back with a 146-checkout. Kumar didn’t buckle though, taking double eight after Veenstra missed his doubles to equalise.

Veenstra hit another high scoring visit, taking out 110 for a 2-0 lead in the second leg, and followed that with a 62-checkout to level the sets. Despite being the favourite, Veenstra allowed Kumar to take two low-scoring checkouts to put himself 2-0 up once again. However, the Dutchman came back with some more ton-plus checkouts to equalise, but Kumar hit back with a 78-checkout to go 2-1 up.

Veenstra’s darts were flying in the high scorers, equalising the sets once again but his visits were not enough as the Indian put the game to bed in the final set.

MATCH 3: Richard Veenstra 2 Nitin Kumar 3

MATCH 4: Joe Cullen (32) Bradley Brooks

Despite Bradley Brooks taking the first leg, Joe Cullen showed that once he gets riled up, he goes for it – winning three legs in a row and the first set.

Cullen began to overpower the 25-year-old in the second leg, breezing through to win the set after Brooks missed two chances at the double to get a leg back in it.

The third leg saw Brooks pick himself up a little more, but once again Cullen came back fighting, taking two legs to put himself ahead and one away from a match against either Mensur Suljovic or David Cameron.

Averaging over 100 in the third set, Cullen wrapped up the match smoothly with a 116 checkout.

RESULT: Joe Cullen 3 Bradley Brooks 0

AS IT HAPPENS: 2025/26 PDC WORLD DARTS CHAMPIONSHIPS

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