Cross Steals Saturday Afternoon Headlines with 112 Average

Rob Cross flies into the last eight with a 112 average in a Masters classic against Gary Anderson.

Cross’ average of 112.32 fell just short of Michael van Gerwen’s record at this competition but nonetheless it was enough to produce one of the great darts matches in his 10-6 win over the Flying Scotsman. Cross began the game looking uncatchable with two early breaks including a 124 outshot on the bullseye. Anderson started to peg the 2018 world champion back after the first ad-break but his eight 180s and 111.17 losing average wasn’t enough to halt Voltage’s surge through to a tie with van Gerwen or Jose de Sousa in the quarter-final.

Danny Noppert picked up the first win of the second round, overcoming a four-leg deficit.

Noppert’s 95.65 average was marginally enough to see him through to the last eight in the first game of Saturday afternoon’s Cazoo Masters action. Despite Stephen Bunting’s quick start, Noppert’s 100% record on double-20 throughout the match kept him within reach in unlikely moments.

Back-to-back breaks of throw in 12 darts brought the Dutchman back to six-legs-a-piece from a 6-2 deficit in the race to 10. Every leg went with the darts until the end where the world number eight finally held his nerve to stumble across the line 10-9.

Jonny Clayton eases through with convincing 10-3 win over James Wade.

The Ferret raced into a two-break, 5-0, lead averaging 104.38 with Wade only having two darts at double to prevent the Ferret. Clayton continued with a professional performance to see himself past an out of sorts Wade with just under 10 points separating the averages. The Welshman sets up a tie with Peter Wright or Dave Chisnall in the next stage.

Chris Dobey rounds off the afternoon session with a 10-8 win over Luke Humphries

‘Hollywood’ was nowhere near his best in his 10-8 upset of the world number five but his 94.56 average was enough to reach the quarter-final. ‘Cool Hand’ didn’t live up to his characteristic nickname as his 27% double percentage was his achilles heel. Despite the game going back and forth, Dobey’s 160 checkout to pull 9-8 ahead killed off Humphries’ hopes of progression.

Published on DartsPlanetTV.