Cross gunning for Grand Slam of Darts glory

Rob Cross will be gunning for more glory in a Professional Darts Corporation televised tournament over the coming days. Picture by Luke Walker/Getty Images

Last month's European Championship winner, from St Leonards, will be targeting further success at the Cazoo Grand Slam of Darts.

The Sky Sports-televised event at Aldersley Leisure Village in Wolverhampton will get underway on Saturday and continue until Sunday October 21.

Cross has been drawn in Group C alongside fourth seed James Wade, Croatia's Boris Krcmar and Welshman Jim Williams.

The world number 11 will open his campaign against Krcmar tomorrow afternoon. His second and third group games will be on Sunday afternoon and Monday evening respectively.

The top two players in each of the eight groups will qualify for the knockout stages, which will begin on Wednesday evening.

Cross warmed up for the Grand Slam by competing in three single-day Players Championship events last week - and he reached the semi-finals in the first of them.

The 31-year-old overcame Rusty-Jake Rodriguez 6-5 (with a 100.43 average), Keane Barry 6-4, Stephen Bunting 6-5 (averaging 109.25), Ryan Joyce 6-5 and Alan Soutar 6-1 (averaging 100.59) before losing 7-4 to eventual champion Chris Dobey despite averaging a remarkable 112.95.

Cross - the 2018 world champion - was knocked out in rounds two and three respectively of the subsequent two tournaments.

Fellow local player Ritchie Edhouse was beaten in round two of all three events but, like Cross, has comfortably qualified for the Ladbrokes Players Championship Finals later this month.