Rob Cross lit up Alexandra Palace in the way only he can as he breezed into round two with a no-nonsense straight-sets demolition of Cor Dekker. After comparing his own current form to Peter Rabbit, nobody expected the 2018 Champion to summon the lightning bolts of old, and truth be told, he didn’t need to.
A calm, workmanlike 90-something average was more than enough to fry the Norwegian’s circuitry.Cross took the opener with the casual confidence of a man flicking on a light switch. Dekker did raise a flicker of resistance in set two — a little voltage spike, nothing more — but when the chances fell his way, he let them slip through his fingers.
Cross, 2018 World Champion and master of dartboard crisis management, simply didn’t. He tidied up the set, closed the match, and walked off without a scorch mark on him.
Next up for Voltage is a man who’s been around the oche almost as long as electricity itself: Ian White. The Diamond emerged from a wonderfully chaotic, occasionally painful, but deeply entertaining trench battle with Mervyn King.
Between the two of them, they boast thirty Alexander Palace campaigns — but reputations alone weren’t going to rescue the averages, which both stubbornly hovered in the low 80s.What the match lacked in sparkle, it more than made up for in tension.
King, staring directly at the trapdoor at two sets down, summoned one final blast of defiance, dragging both the third and fourth sets into last-leg shoot-outs and winning them. Suddenly we had a game. But that was as much magic as the Norfolk veteran could muster.
White slammed the door shut in the decider, rattling off the legs required and marching on to face Cross in what feels like a match bursting with historical grit.
Elsewhere, Bullyboy Michael Smith barely had time to digest last night’s win over Lisa Ashton before finding out who awaited him next. One match into the afternoon session, and the answer arrived: Niels Zonneveld.
The Dutchman rolled past Haupai Puha with icy efficiency, capturing both of the crucial fifth legs in the early sets to build a 2–0 cushion. From there, Triple Z never loosened his grip. Puha pressed, but Zonneveld pressed harder, sweeping the third set with the authority of a man who had already decided where his evening was headed.
Sandwiched neatly within the day’s drama was Ryan Searle, quietly causing structural damage to Chris Landman’s tournament. Heavy Metal’s back catalogue at Ally Pally is nothing if not consistent — third or fourth round, seven years running — but this opener never looked like being added to the highlight reel.
Searle battered through the first set, absorbed a spirited pushback from the Dutchman in the second, pinched it at the death, and from there the match felt like watching an avalanche settle its paperwork.
For Searle, round two now promises either the explosiveness of teenage prodigy Tavis Dudeney or the granite resilience of Brendan Dolan. Youth or experience. Sparks or steel. Either way, Heavy Metal will fancy making a little more noise on his march up Muswell Hill.
Friday 12th December (Afternoon Session Results)
Niels Zonnerveld 3-0 Haupai Puha
Ian White 3-2 Mervyn King
Ryan Searle 3-0 Chris Landman
Rob Cross 3-0 Cor Dekker
—-Ends—–
