Clinical Cross Bags Fifth World Series Title In Den Bosch

Clinical Cross Bags Fifth World Series Title In Den Bosch

Alex Moss |

A Week In Darts - January 27, 2025 - Cross Sees Off Bunting To Win Fifth World Series Crown At The Dutch Darts Masters

The World Series rolled into the Netherlands last week for the Dutch Darts Masters, whilst the first WDF European events of 2025 took place in Romania. Here's our round-up of all the action...

CROSS LIFTS DUTCH WORLD SERIES TITLE

Rob Cross claimed his fifth career World Series of Darts title with a clinical display at the Dutch Darts Masters.

β€˜Voltage’ bounced back from his first-round exit at the Bahrain Darts Masters the previous week in style, beating the Bahrain champion Stephen Bunting 8-5 in Saturday’s final.

The 2018 PDC world champion produced a series of top-class displays at De Maaspoort, in Den Bosch, to lift the Toon Greebe Trophy for the first time.

After opening his campaign with a 6-3 victory over Richard Veenstra on Friday, Cross saw off another Dutchman as he hit six of his eight attempts on the doubles to beat Jermaine Wattimena by the same scoreline.

Cross averaged over 100 and hit 50 per cent of his doubles in a 7-3 success against Gerwyn Price in the semi-finals, before continuing his impressive run with a 101 average and 8/15 on the doubles to get past Bunting in the final.

β€œIt’s amazing to come here and win – it’s special for me,” Cross reflected.

β€œI think it’s about time I won in the Netherlands and I’m very grateful – the crowd were brilliant. The determination and focus I had today dragged me through.

β€œStephen is a great man and he’s a credit to the sport. He’s done all the work today, got there and probably ran out of steam.

β€œTo come here and win this one means so much. It’s been a great weekend and I’ve really enjoyed it, and I love the World Series.”

Bunting - last week’s winner in Bahrain – just fell short of back-to-back titles on the World Series, losing out in the decider to Cross.

β€˜The Bullet’ won three last-leg deciders in a row to reach the final, edging past Gian van Veen, Raymond van Barneveld and the reigning PDC world champion Luke Littler.

The World Series resumes with the Nordic Darts Masters in Copenhagen on June 6-7.

RAMAN TRIUMPHS IN ROMANIA

Brian Raman opened his WDF title account for 2025 with a victory at the Romanian Open on Sunday.

The former WDF men’s number one defeated Greece’s John Michael 5-2 in the final to clinch his fifth career WDF ranking title.

The Mission-sponsored Romanian Darts Festival attracted another bumper field of entries, with more than 550 players competing in Bucharest at the weekend.

David Pallett picked up his second WDF title after winning the Romanian Classic, coming back from 2-0 down to beat Brandon Stow 5-3 in the final.

Meanwhile in the women’s events, Aileen de Graaf added to her haul of trophies with a 5-4 triumph against Deta Hedman in the Romanian Open decider.

Lerena Rietbergen lived up to the top seed billing in the Romanian Classic, seeing off Lakeside runner-up Sophie McKinlay 5-2 in the final.

PREMIER LEAGUE FIXTURES CONFIRMED

Luke Littler will begin his defence of the Premier League title against Michael van Gerwen on the opening night in Belfast next week.

The fixtures for the 2025 Premier League season were announced on Wednesday, with Littler and van Gerwen set to face off in a repeat of the 2024/25 PDC World Championship final on the first night of action on February 6.

Belfast’s SSE Arena plays host to the opening night of the season where world number one Luke Humphries kicks off his campaign against Nathan Aspinall, with Littler or van Gerwen awaiting the winner in the semi-finals.

Stephen Bunting makes his Premier League return against Rob Cross in a repeat of Saturday’s Dutch Darts Masters final, whilst Gerwyn Price locks horns with Chris Dobey in the other quarter-final.

The 21st season of the Premier League will see eight of the sport’s biggest names competing in 16 mini-events, with each league night comprising quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final all over the best of 11 legs.

Points will be awarded each night with five to the nightly winner, three to the runner-up and two to the beaten semi-finalists. All of the points form a league table with the top four players after 16 nights progressing to the play-offs at The O2 in London on May 29.

Picture: Kelly Deckers/PDC

Alex MossΒ is a content creator for Darts Corner and the co-host of theΒ Weekly DartscastΒ podcast. Alex co-founded the Weekly Dartscast in 2017 andΒ has helped produce 350+ episodes of the podcast, with their list of previous guests on the show a who’s who in the world of darts.

Alex also writes content for the Darts Corner blog, including the weeklyΒ darts news round-upsΒ andΒ how-to guides.

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