CROSS FIGHTS TO PULL HIS GAME OUT OF A SLUMP

ROB CROSS admits he has been off the pace this season and is fighting to drag his game out of a slump.

‘Voltage’ has dropped out of the top 16 with his form off and results wayward.

Former World Champ Cross has failed to reach a major quarter final for the first time in a campaign since 2016.

Cross revealed he has struggled in recent months yet believes the work he is now putting in will spark a turnaround at Ally Pally.

He told talkSPORT: “I am in the gym now trying to get myself a little fitter and build my core up again.

“I will not say I am at the best time in my life at the minute, but I am not as bad as I was a month ago.

“Getting in the gym freshening my head up and trying to get my motivation back so I am not feeling lazy and flat.

“I am working on it to get it right and if I do watch out everything will be great.

“If I did not feel I could compete at the best level that I could do then why would I want to go out and get smashed every week for even eighty thousand pounds?

“I would not enjoy it. It would not do my head any good. I like to win and at the least I like to play well. Retirement is not an option.”

Sussex thrower Cross says slipping down the Order of Merit does not worry him and believes he can climb again.

He added: “I do not worry about the ranking. Most of the time I have been in the top ten. I know I am out of that at the minute.

“I had a big slump through Covid and I dropped out then. All of a sudden, two years later I was number four in the world.

“There are no worries, I just need to get that momentum. I need to get a routine and get my head down and work a bit harder.

“I would not say it is an excuse, but if I was giving it my best and still playing like I have been in the last three months, then I would personally think I need to look for a job change.”

World No17 Cross begins his World Championship campaign against Cor Dekker on December 12.

Cross lifted the lid on the intense training plan he is following as he aims to win the £1Million top prize and lift the Sid Waddell Trophy for a second time.

He continued: “I always have the same prep for the World Championships. I go back to Hastings and I run four hours a day on the practice board with a couple of my friends.

“They always take their time out. It leaves me seventy miles from London to go back. So I will actually go away. I will not be at home.

“I will be fully focused on the World Championship and getting myself ready. If I do that I think I will be great at the World Championships.”

Image by Taylor Lanning.