Cross: I Went from Underdog to Big Dog... Overnight

EXCLUSIVE World Champion Rob Cross admits that the last two months of his life have been like an “out-of-body experience”. The Hastings battler is finding his top form again after his fairytale World Championship win in early January. Voltage, 27, crashed out of the UK Open in the quarter-finals to his “bogey man” Gary Anderson but believes he is finally settling down into normal life. He revealed: “I’ll be honest, it felt like it was happening to someone else and not me. It really did feel like an out-of-body experience. “I’ve heard people talk about that sort of thing before and didn’t believe them, but now I do. It was very odd, surreal and just unbelievable. “To suddenly be thrust into doing Good Morning Britain and pretty much every media outlet in the UK was very hard to take in so quickly. “If you actually take the World Championships out of the equation, I’m still progressing from where I was before winning that tournament. The Ally Pally has just catapulted me into the limelight. That’s not really my thing. “I was the underdog for two years and then overnight I was the big dog. I’m not that sort of guy who craves attention. “Some players love all that. I’m not the sort of bloke to have an arrogant swagger, I’m just a normal family guy who loves to play darts. “I could leave all the fame behind to be quite honest, I don’t need it. I just play this game and love to win darts matches, the money is all for our kids so they can grow up with security. “All the attention didn’t suit me. It was like an avalanche piling down on me. But I feel OK now, life feels normal again and I’m back in my old routine. “It was good to get home after the UK Open. I just spent all day Monday on the couch with my kids watching the film Monster family. The kids bring me back down to earth all the time and that means the world to me.” Cross, who faces Unibet Premier League leader Michael Smith in Leeds tomorrow (Thurs), believes that his defeat to on-fire Anderson in Minehead was just a blip. He admitted: “I don’t really know what it is but Gary has become my bogey player. I’ve lost every match against him. Maybe it’s his quick rhythm that upsets my game, I’m not sure. “We were nip and tuck for the first half of the match on Sunday but then my game evaporated and he got stronger. That’s why he was a deserving winner. “I am really enjoying life though. I feel I’m doing OK but been nowhere near my A game since winning the Worlds. “But I do know I’m getting stronger, more consistent and my game is building well. I need to be a little bit more robust right now in games, but it’s coming, I know it is.” By Phil Lanning (@lannomedia)