We missed “too many chances”

By Phil Lanning

ROB CROSS admitted England missed “too many chances” as Wales won their first World Cup final last night.

Welsh pair Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton whitewashed the England pair Cross and Michael Smith 3-0 to land the £70,000 cheque in Salzburg last night.

England failed to hit form during the tournament but sneaked past Austria and Belgium to face the red-hot Wales duo.

Clayton added: “I’m the proudest man on this planet at the moment. To play alongside the best player in the world right now Gerwyn is amazing. To now pick that trophy up for Wales is simply awesome.”

Price added: I’ve won a couple of tournaments before but this is definitely the most special to me.”

Smith lost to Price in the opening singles clash before Clayton overcame Cross and then Wales sealed the deal with a comfortable pairs win.

Cross added: “We missed too many chances. Mike and I didn’t play our best at all but we kept fighting. We lost to the best pair in the world without doubt.”

Cross also admitted there was huge “needle” in his fiesty quarter-final clash with Rowby-John Rodriguez.

Cross needed to beat Rodriguez to keep England in the competition after Michael Smith had lost the opening match to Mensur Suljovic.

However, the Hastings player was clearly angered by Rodriguez during the match as he came back to win and force the pairs decider which England also won.

A normally placid Cross was fuming afterwards saying: “Rowby is a nice boy normally just found a few things wrong. Maybe I felt I was wrongly done. I’m going to be diplomatic and sit on the fence. 

“But I got that much needle. I’m going to be diplomatic, it bugged me I nearly lost that game of pairs through that.”

Image credit: Taylor Lanning Photography