ROB CROSS admitted he was “guilty as charged” for making an X-rated gesture at the World Championship.
The World No.4 has revealed he has already been fined by the Darts Regulation Authority less than a month after his Ally Pally poor show.
Cross, 34, made a lewd hand signal to his manager as he walked off the stage in frustration at his own performance as he exited the tournament at the first hurdle.
He beat Richard Veenstra in his opening Dutch Darts Masters clash on Friday and said: “I don’t even know whether I’m allowed to speak about that.
“Put it this way, for what I got fined, it’s the quickest fine I’ve ever paid.
“Usually I leave it to the last minute. It was decent.
“I’m guilty as charged and I’ve apologised about it.”
Cross looked back on form with the 6-3 win over Veenstra, a week after a poor display in a shock defeat to Paolo Nebrida in Bahrain.
He added: “I’ve had some time off and a rest from the Worlds. But no excuses. I think 12-darter came at a good time.
“There’s flashes there but it’s not like it’s a complete performance that I need.
List of all-time Darts World Champions
BELOW is a list of darts world champions by year.
The list does not include winners from the pre-Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) era or BDO world champions.
That means Raymond van Barneveld, for example, is only listed once – Barney also won four BDO titles – and none of Eric Bristow’s five BDO titles are included.
- 1994 – Dennis Priestley
- 1995 – Phil Taylor
- 1996 – Phil Taylor (2)
- 1997 – Phil Taylor (3)
- 1998 – Phil Taylor (4)
- 1999 – Phil Taylor (5)
- 2000 – Phil Taylor (6)
- 2001 – Phil Taylor (7)
- 2002 – Phil Taylor (8)
- 2003 – John Part
- 2004 – Phil Taylor (9)
- 2005 – Phil Taylor (10)
- 2006 – Phil Taylor (11)
- 2007 – Raymond van Barneveld
- 2008 – John Part (2)
- 2009 – Phil Taylor (12)
- 2010 – Phil Taylor (13)
- 2011 – Adrian Lewis
- 2012 – Adrian Lewis (2)
- 2013 – Phil Taylor (14)
- 2014 – Michael van Gerwen
- 2015 – Gary Anderson
- 2016 – Gary Anderson (2)
- 2017 – Michael van Gerwen (2)
- 2018 – Rob Cross
- 2019 – Michael van Gerwen (3)
- 2020 – Peter Wright
- 2021 – Gerwyn Price
- 2022 – Peter Wright (2)
- 2023 – Michael Smith
- 2024 – Luke Humphries
- 2025 – Luke Littler
Most World Titles
- 14 – Phil Taylor
- 3 – Michael van Gerwen
- 2 – John Part, Adrian Lewis, Gary Anderson, Peter Wright
- 1 – Dennis Priestley, Raymond van Barneveld, Rob Cross, Gerwyn Price, Michael Smith, Luke Humphries, Luke Littler
“You need a win just to get your platform and what you are going to kick off for the year.
“I picked a few darts up this week because I had to.
“I’ve been a bit lazy and guilty for enjoying being with the family too much.
“I want the height from a good performance, it’s not quite there at the minute.
“I went into the Worlds in good form. It was probably my worst performance of the year. It was a massive disappointment to do that.
“It kicks you a bit. I spent a bit of time away from the game because of that just to forget. It’s all about this year now.
“I just want to play myself into a bit of form. Hopefully tomorrow you can watch the proper Bobby turn up. That needs to happen.”