CROSS ADMITS MAJOR MOTIVATION SLUMP

ROB CROSS admits he is battling a major motivation slump as he looks to reignite his season. 

‘Voltage’ made a great start to the year by winning the Players Championship One and Dutch Darts Masters titles. 

But the Sussex thrower has been inconsistent since, and he’s yet to make a major quarter-final in 2025. 

World No. 9 Cross endured a frustrating World Matchplay campaign, crashing out in the first round after a shock 10-8 defeat to Dirk van Duijvenbode. 

Four-times major winner Cross concedes he’s been struggling with focus and passion at the oche — but says it’s time to get serious. 

He said: “The motivation is a problem for me at the minute, you know, obviously I’ve had time out.  

“I played four or five times in seven weeks, and I felt good for the Matchplay actually, I managed to do a bit of practice and stuff.   

“Concentration is probably a little bit of an issue there against Dirk, you know, 6-2 up, averaging 108, and then it was like switching the tap off. 

“I need to correct that really coming up for the rest of the year from September onwards, but yeah, motivation, has got to change.   

“I’ve got to probably pull me finger out and actually put a bit more practice in and get a little bit more keen and more passionate about the game.  

“That’s darts and if I don’t work at It hard enough, I’m not the most naturally talented player out of all of us on there. 

“Some people probably won’t have to pick a dart up for a month and still come back and be sort of very decent so yeah, I need to put that work in.” 

Cross will now turn his attention to the second half of the campaign with big TV events in Leicester, Dortmund and Minehead still to come before the World Championships.

Image by Taylor Lanning.