Turn, oddly reluctant to meet striker's first crosses (9)
I believe the answer is:
traverses
'crosses' is the definition.
('traverse' can be a synonym of 'cross')
'turn oddly reluctant to meet striker's first' is the wordplay.
'oddly' indicates alternate letters.
'reluctant' becomes 'averse' (I've seen this before**).
'to meet' says to put letters next to each other.
'first' suggests taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'strikers' is 's'.
The alternate letters of 'turn' are 'tr'.
'tr'+'averse'+'s'='TRAVERSES'
(Another definition for traverses that I've seen is " crosses".)