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'Whether they bottled it or not': Rob Cross struggles to understand how England's World Cup pairings fell at the first hurdle

Originally posted on Dartsnews.com | Last updated Jun 19, 2025 1:26 PM ET

World number nine, Rob Cross, has spoken out about the disappointing campaign England’s pairing of Luke Littler and Luke Humphries endured at the World Cup of Darts.

It’s no secret that England massively underperformed compared to pre-tournament expectations at the World Cup of Darts. Coming into the event with the world’s two top players, it was expected that England would win the whole tournament—and do so with relative ease. The pairing of Luke Littler and Luke Humphries was, on paper, one of the best teams the World Cup has ever seen; however, we now know this was not the case. Suffering an agonising defeat against host nation Germany, England were comprehensively beaten 8–4 and looked out of energy from the start. This result was not just poor in terms of the loss, but also due to the fact that neither Littler nor Humphries averaged over 95—well below their usual standards.

Former World Champion, Rob Cross has expressed his thoughts on the matter and offered some words for the pair whilst speaking to Action Network:

"I've read a lot of stuff on social media saying that obviously the pressure got to them and other stuff but look, these boys are the two best players in the world".

"There are some things in life where things just don’t happen (as you planned) and they were playing against home favourites and it can be tough sometimes. They will bounce back, and they’ll be back to normal".

"I can’t get my head around why it didn’t work but as I say, we see these things happen in life. They’re both amazing and will bounce back, whether they bottled it or not, I wouldn’t say so".

"It can be a hard situation to play in and with it being a pairs game, you have to rely on each other and if you look at Wales with Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton, they have played with each other before and they’ve got the chemistry, so it works for them and makes sense".

"They will know what they need to work on together if they both play with each again next time".

Cross would further go on to say about the importance of not relying on your partner too much: "I seem to find from what I know about darts is that you have got to rely on yourself because it's the only person that gets you out of trouble".

"It's a different game, it's a totally different game, they have to slow down for more than 20 seconds, people go in front of them again or three people throw after you so there's the gaps there and there's different stuff in the game and what makes the game different is the game being in pairs".

Questions still need to be asked of the English team after their sub-par performances, but maybe after Cross’ explanation it’s easier to understand just how something like this can happen. Cross would further go on to explain the difficulties he found playing as a pair, in an attempt to provide an understanding of the pressures: “For me, I love representing the country, but I struggle playing in pairs legitimately, and I’ll be open to say that when I go up there, I want to get on with the game and sometimes I have to wait a minute instead of 15 seconds".

"So, for me, I've struggled here and there. I'm not so surprised if they did have a bit of a bit of a meltdown or got hung up out there".

The jury is still out for the English pairing, and after missing the Players Championship triple header this week, it will be fascinating to see how the world’s top two bounce back in the near future.

This article first appeared on Dartsnews.com and was syndicated with permission.

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