Josh Rock: 'I'll bring one home' - Antrim darts player vows to win a world title
- Published
Josh Rock won his maiden PDC title by beating Luke Humphries in a Players Championship event in October
By his own admission, the last 12 months have been something of a whirlwind for 21-year-old Northern Ireland darts player Josh Rock.
The Antrim native secured his PDC Tour Card in January, won his first senior ranking title in October, hit a televised nine-darter at the recent Grand Slam of Darts and was crowned World Youth champion in November.
Now he is set to make his World Championship debut at Alexandra Palace.
Rock has taken the darting world by storm and is hotly tipped to be one of the 'next big things' in the sport given the potential he has shown this year.
"The last 12 months have been phenomenal. My life has completely changed," said Rock, who is now resident in the county Antrim village of Broughshane.
"One week I wasn't a professional darts player, the next week I was."
The young Northern Ireland player competed on the World Darts Federation (WDF) circuit in 2021, before bursting onto the scene with the PDC in 2022.
At Qualifying School, Rock won his two-year Tour Card on the final day of qualifying by defeating compatriot Nathan Rafferty.
He played on the Development Tour for the first time in February and reached three finals in his first three events, winning two of them.
In the course of 2022 Rock won five Youth/PDC Development Tour events, one Players Championship tournament in Barnsley and a PDC Challenge Tour title in Leicester.
The 21-year-old is the World Youth Champion after beating Nathan Girvan 6-1 in the final
'Lockdown helped me practice'
"I played my first competitive game in the pub leagues when I was 10 or 11 but then I had to focus on school," he explained.
"When I was 16 and finished school it all started from there. I always wanted to be a full-time professional darts player from day one.
"Lockdown helped me practice wise because there was nothing else to do, so I was practicing seven or eight hours a day.
"I've created a lot of waves and will continue to create a lot of waves. I'll be expecting big things next year."
Rock defeated Luke Humphries 8-5 in the final of his Players Championship win in October with an average of 108.07.
He followed that up by reaching the last 16 of the European Championship in October, beating top-10 player Nathan Aspinall 6-5 before losing to Michael Smith 10-8 in a high-quality match.
'I don't feel any pressure'
Having recorded a nine-darter in a match against Dave Chisnall in March in Barnsley, Rock became the first person to hit a televised nine-dart finish in their debut at the Grand Slam of Darts in November.
He ultimately lost 10-8 in that last-16 match to three-time world champion Michael van Gerwen but takes confidence from the fact that he pushed the Dutchman all the way.
"I pushed one of the best players in the world to his best game and I know I can get better.
"The standard of darts is getting better and better but there's more youth coming into it now.
"It feels fantastic playing on the stage, I prefer that to playing on the floor because I love the crowd. I don't feel any pressure."
Josh Rock has burst onto the darting scene in 2022
Rock lost 6-3 to Scotland's Cameron Menzies in the first round of the Players Championship finals in Minehead but bounced back to defeat Nathan Girvin 6-1 to win the World Youth Championship title at the same venue with a record average of 104.13, collecting a £10,000 top prize for his success.
He sits 47th in the PDC Order of Merit as he prepares to make his bow on the biggest stage the sport has to offer at Alexandra Palace.
He has been drawn against Jose Justicia from Spain in the first round of the World Darts Championship, with the winner facing number 23 seed Callan Rydz from Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the second round.
"I'll take one game at a time but I'm confident. I'll bring one [a world title] home one year," concluded the Northern Irishman.
Northern Ireland's Nathan Rafferty is in first-round action on Thursday, with the Coalisland man taking on Jermaine Wattimena of the Netherlands, while Dungannon's Mickey Mansell faces Ben Robb.
Daryl Gurney will take to the table on Saturday in round two, when he will play the winner of the first-round clash between Alan Soutar and Mal Cuming.