Cross wins Players Champs 26

Super Series 7 by Henry Cheal

Players Championship 24 –

On the back of a stunning win in Salzburg, it was straight back to England for Cross for Super Series 7. With the man arguably at his most confident these last few years, it proved to be an extremely successful Super Series 7 for the man from Kent.

That confidence was shown instantly in his opening round game with John Brown, where he won 6-0 and averaged 107.36 to put a statement out there to the rest that Cross was on a mission. Wins against Kai Fan Leung, Keane Barry and Mike De Decker helped Cross reached the quarter final, but couldn’t progress further as he lost to Dimitri van den Bergh, despite averaging 103 in the process. 

Players Championship 25 –

The following day proved to be a decent run as the former World Champion reached the last 16, as he scraped through in two of his three games by winning last leg deciders against Peter Hudson and Krzysztof Ratajski. 

In the last 16 he took on Chris Dobey, but a 92 average wasn’t enough to make an impact on the game as he lost 6-2 while his opponent averaged near on 104.

Players Championship 26 –

In Players Championship 26, Cross won the title. After a three year drought of not winning any floor titles, he went on to win after an excellent day of tungsten pleasure.

His day started off against David Evans, where in each leg he checked out in 16 or less and averaged a more then respectable 101 in a 6-0 whitewash win to set up a tie with John Henderson in the following round.

It proved to be a closer game against the Scotsman, who took four legs, but Cross averaged 101 for the second game running and was hard to stop as he won three legs in a row from 3-2 down which helped him see out the match. 

Cross stepped it up a gear in his last 32 tie with Andy Hamilton, averaging 107 for the second time in the three days and hit a high checkout of 127 to round off the match with a 12 darter. 

Cross progressed through to the semi final thanks to wins over Wright and van der Voort, averaging 102 in both games and only dropped five legs to set up an encounter with Madars Razma in the last 4. 

Despite Razma hit a nine darter to level up the tie at 3-3, Cross wasn’t fazed by the Lativian as he reeled off four of the next five legs to progress through to the final.

In the final he took on the in-form Ryan Searle and raced into a 6-2 lead, checking out five of those legs in 15 darts or less. Searle came back into the to reduce the deficit to 6-5. An important 14 darter gave Cross a bit of breathing space to lead 7-5 and go one away from winning, which helped him take victory thanks to both players sharing the next two legs.

A successful day for Voltage as he took home the £10,000 cheque, not to mention him playing some of his best stuff throughout the day. 

Players Championship 27

It could have almost been two titles in a row for Cross but came just short of a place in the final as he lost in the semi-finals to Ross Smith.

It was a great start of the day for Cross, however, as he defeated Adam Hunt and Kai Fan Leung 6-1 and 6-2 averaging just under a ton in both games.

Though in his next game against Jim McEwan, he was more tested as he came from 3-0 and 4-3 down to just about make it through, ending the match on a 12 darter where he checked out a high finish of 141. 

Both the last 16 and quarter final encounters where much improved performances for Cross, averaging 111 and 101 in both games where he salvaged 6-4 wins before losing out to Ross Smith in the semi-finals.

Super Series 8

Players Championship 28

Super Series 8 started off exactly the same way as Super Series 7 ended, with another semi-final run and yet again came close to reaching the final.

Cross showed his class in the opening rounds by making it through to the quarter-finals by winning three last leg deciders in four matches. Though averaging as high as 109 in his last 32 clash with Stephen Bunting, he averaged as low as 93.5 the following game with Ryan Joyce.

In the quarter final he defeated Alan Soutar 6-1 and averaged 100 in the process to progress through.

In the semi-final, he played his best game from Super Series 8 and it wasn’t enough to progress through. In what was the game of the tournament with Chris Dobey, both averaged 110+ and all 11 legs won by both players were checked out in 15 darts or less. 

Players Championship 29

The following day wasn’t as successful for Cross. Though he got off to a good start, winning 6-1 and averaging 97.5, he couldn’t repeat that same performance in the last 64 and lost 6-3 to Martin Lukeman.

Players Championship 30

On the floor tournament of the year Cross made it to the last 32. Despite averaging a sub-standard 90 but winning comfortably enough in both his games with Matt Jackson and Kevin Doets, Cross took on Stephen Bunting once more. This time round, Bunting sought revenge and was successful as he defeated Cross 6-4.