Ruthless and toothless Rob Cross aiming to put the Hydro bite on Luke Littler
Ruthless Rob Cross wants to put the Hydro bite on Luke Littler after a painful visit to the dentist. But the Londoner reckons it’s naive to think being targeted puts added heat onto The Nuke.
Littler hits Glasgow on Thursday for night two of Premier League Darts. Cross aims emulate Michael van Gerwen’s efforts in Belfast five days ago and dump the teenager out at the first hurdle. The 2018 World Champion had wisdom teeth out at the weekend, but it didn’t stop him powering to success in the first Players Championship of the ProTour season on Monday.
Cross was toothless and ruthless and explained: “I had to cancel a bit of work last weekend as I had a couple of wisdom teeth out Saturday, they’ve been giving me a bit of a jip, I don’t feel like my best at the minute, but I can’t really use that as an excuse, If anything it’s a distraction for my head, so I can actually play! I feel I’m getting better, I wouldn’t say my mouth’s 100 per cent at the minute, but look, if I can deliver that when I’m not 100 per cent, that’s just typical Bobby, innit?”
Littler is the Hydro headliner after his record-breaking run to the World title at the turn of the year. However, since those heroics, the 18-year-old has failed to reach a Final in three TV events and those setbacks were followed by that first-game loss to van Gerwen in Northern Ireland. Once again, as defending PL champ, Littler is there to be shot at in Glasgow, but Cross doesn’t think it’s an issue as he said: “You tell me over the last year how many problems the boy’s had? He’s not really had a lot, has he?
“So I think you’d be naive to think that it’s going to affect him massively. He will have a target on his back now more so, obviously being World Champion. I think that’s a big thing in the game. “But he’s still playing great. He showed that and I think he’ll carry on. Why not? The game’s in a good place, he’s still playing very well. He’s losing with big averages and sometimes you’ve just got to be patient and wait for the wins.”
Cross also believes in himself as he aims to build on last week’s start in Belfast where he reached a semi-final. The 2018 World Champ also won the Dutch Darts Masters three weeks ago, but was hammered in his last TV clash with Littler at last year’s Players Championship Finals and said: “I believe I can beat anyone on my day, but he was special that day. You’ve just got to enjoy it.”
Cross is aiming for a big 2025 league showing having failed to make the top-four a year ago and believes adapting to the new format will help. He said: “I think the Premier League is obviously not ranking, but it’s probably the second biggest one just below the Worlds. So to win that would be a dream really.
“I had a bad six weeks in a row last year. I never really picked any points up. If I didn’t do that, I would have been very close. Probably stay a little bit more focused. Maybe have a bit of time on the board just to correct the things what I was doing wrong. I never done that last year. I just had time off, sort of rested up, We’ll change a few bits this year and look forward to it. I never really looked at the table for the first, I suppose, eight weeks, 10 weeks last year, which I’m probably a bit guilty for not looking and trying to pull my finger out. Having that experience now, I think I can better where I finished last year, get in that top four and that’s where you need to be.”
