CROSS EXPRESSES FRUSTRATION AFTER TOUGH SEASON

ROB CROSS admits frustration and says he has only himself to blame after struggling to hit form this season. 

‘Voltage’ booked his spot in round three of the Swiss Darts Trophy with a 6-2 victory over Richard Veenstra, averaging 94.61 and hitting six of his 15 doubles. 

World No. 9 Cross has shown glimpses of brilliance in 2025 after winning the Players Championship One and Dutch Darts Masters titles. 

But the Sussex thrower failed to go past the last 16 in all EIGHT Euro Tour events he’s played and has fallen short of the quarter-finals in all five majors this year. 

Cross is clinging to 31st on the European Championship Order of Merit – just one place above the cut-off – after a difficult run but insists he won’t let the pressure of securing qualification knock him off track. 

He said: “We’re getting to the end of it now. We’ve got two more [European Tour events] maybe a little bit of frustration there, thinking to myself I’ve slipped up early and I have missed a few Europeans. 

“But I fully understand that it’s my fault for the situation I’m in. 

“I need to get there, and I need to get qualified, because obviously the European Championship Finals is very important. 

“Yeah, so just got to put the best work in now, so there won’t be no crying or nothing. You just got to go out there, man it out, tough it out, and get the results really. 

“One minute, you there, next minute you’re gone you know, can’t win a second game. 

“Don’t get me wrong, I love to win and make every quarter final of every tournament. I like to win every tournament. 

“But for whatever reason, if it’s not worked out, I’m sure that it’s got to and it will do.” 

Four-time major winner Cross also faces a significant drop down the Order of Merit, as he is set to defend ranking money from his 2023 Grand Slam final and 2024 World Championship semi-final runs later this year. 

He added: “I’ve been very fortunate for seven years. I don’t think I’ve very rarely been out the top 10.  

“Wherever it ends up in January is fine, and I’ll deal with that. And it could be great in January, it could be even worse, you know.   

“I won’t put pressure on myself. I think there’s only really one number in the world, in the world ranking system that really matters to me, and I’ve never had that, so that’s number one.   

“The rest of it, if I was number two or 12 or whatever, it really doesn’t matter to me. If I was number one, it mattered. But the rest of it, no pressure.”

Image by Taylor Lanning.