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