Stephen Bunting beats Rob Cross to win Nordic Masters

Stephen Bunting beat fellow Englishman Rob Cross 8-4 in the final of the Nordic Masters in Denmark to claim his second World Series title of the year.

In a race to eight legs, the two were tied at 3-3 at the break before Bunting hit double top and broke the throw after Cross failed to take out 40 in the seventh leg.

Bunting produced a 104 finish to go 5-3 up and continued his run to five straight legs to move four clear at 7-3 and one away from victory against a struggling Cross.

Bunting missed bull as he nearly finished with a 170 but he secured victory by cleaning up the remaining 25 on his next visit.

“The way I’ve been playing, I was wondering if I was going to win another title again,” Bunting, who won the Bahrain Masters in January, told ITV.

“My doubles have been atrocious over the last couple of months. It’s something I need to work on.

“But, when you win titles like this against the calibre of players that I’m playing week-in week-out, it means an awful lot.”

Luke Littler and Luke Humphries had both been knocked out in the quarter-finals.

World champion Littler suffered a 6-3 loss to Nathan Aspinall, who was beaten 7-5 by Bunting in the semi-finals.

Defending champion Gerwyn Price won 6-3 to end the challenge of world number one Humphries but the Welshman lost 7-4 to Cross in the last four.