Martin Lukeman fought back from 5-1 down to stun former world champion Rob Cross and reach his first major semi-final with a 16-11 victory at the Grand Slam of Darts in Wolverhampton.

Martin Lukeman fought back from 5-1 down to stun former world champion Rob Cross and reach his first major semi-final with a 16-11 victory at the Grand Slam of Darts in Wolverhampton.

Views: 56

Martin Lukeman fought back from 5-1 down to stun former world champion Rob Cross and reach his first major semi-final with a 16-11 victory at the Grand Slam of Darts in Wolverhampton.

World number four Cross, who was runner-up in the tournament 12 months ago, dominated early on.

However, Lukeman won eight of the next nine legs to establish a 9-6 lead.

Cross responded with four of the following five to draw level at 10-10, before his fellow Englishman reeled off six of the remaining seven legs to set up a semi-final against Mickey Mansell on Sunday (13:00 GMT).

“It’s a bit of a blur to be fair,” Lukeman said on Sky Sports.

“I remember taking 144 out and had a few finishes on the bull, but apart from that I was just so concentrated, I was like, ‘I’m doing this, I’m having a picture with my wife with the trophy on this stage, simple as that’.”

Earlier on Friday, Northern Ireland’s Mansell recovered from 4-0 down to defeat Scotland’s Cameron Menzies 16-15 in a dramatic final-leg decider.Þm

Francis Utiongkpan

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *