Joshua Rock (born 13 April 2001) is a Northern Irish professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He is the current Dutch Darts champion.
| Josh Rock | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Rock at the 2024 Grand Slam of Darts | |||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||
| Full name | Joshua Rock | ||||||||||||
| Nickname | "Rocky"[1] | ||||||||||||
| Born | 13 April 2001[2] County Antrim, Northern Ireland | ||||||||||||
| Home town | Broughshane, County Antrim, Northern Ireland | ||||||||||||
| Darts information | |||||||||||||
| Playing darts since | 2016 | ||||||||||||
| Darts | 24g Mission | ||||||||||||
| Laterality | Right-handed | ||||||||||||
| Walk-on music | "Welcome To The Party" by Dj Krissy | ||||||||||||
| Organisation (see split in darts) | |||||||||||||
| PDC | 2022– (Tour Card: 2022-) | ||||||||||||
| WDF | 2021 | ||||||||||||
| Current world ranking | 18  (24 November 2024)[3] | ||||||||||||
| PDC premier events – best performances | |||||||||||||
| World Ch'ship | Last 16: 2023 | ||||||||||||
| World Matchplay | Last 32: 2023, 2024 | ||||||||||||
| World Grand Prix | Last 32: 2023, 2024 | ||||||||||||
| UK Open | Last 32: 2024 | ||||||||||||
| Grand Slam | Quarter Final: 2023 | ||||||||||||
| European Ch'ship | Last 16: 2022 | ||||||||||||
| PC Finals | Last 32: 2023 | ||||||||||||
| Masters | Last 24: 2024 | ||||||||||||
| Other tournament wins | |||||||||||||
Youth events
European Tour Events
Players Championships
| |||||||||||||
| Other achievements | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
In his debut year at the international level, he won the 2022 PDC World Youth Championship. He is also the first player to throw a televised nine-dart finish in their debut year at the Grand Slam of Darts, achieving the feat against Michael van Gerwen at the 2022 event.
Career
editIn 2021 he reached a final in Irish Classic and lost 3–5 to Shaun McDonald. He defeated on the way to the finals some high-rank players like Brian Raman. Beside he played himself into the quarter-finals of the Irish Open.[clarification needed] At this tournament he reached one of the highest average in the history of tournaments organized by the World Darts Federation, beating Nick Fullwell 4–0 in third round with 111.33 average.
At Q-School in 2022, Rock won his Tour Card on the final day of qualifying by defeating his fellow countryman Nathan Rafferty, earning a two-year card on the PDC circuit.[4] He played on the PDC Development Tour for the first time in February, and reaching three finals in his first three events and winning two of them. In November, Rock achieved his first televised 9-dart finish in the last 16 of the 2022 Grand Slam of Darts, in an eventual 10–8 defeat to Michael van Gerwen.[5] Later that month, Rock won the PDC World Youth Championship by beating Nathan Girvan 6–1 with an average of 104.13, a record for a World Youth final.[6]
2023
editIn his debut at the 2023 World Championship, Rock beat José Justicia, Callan Rydz and Nathan Aspinall before losing 3–4 to Jonny Clayton in the fourth round.
On the 2023 PDC Pro Tour, Rock reached the final of 4 Players Championship Events and the Austrian Darts Open.
At the 2023 Grand Slam of Darts, Rock won Group B with wins against Chris Dobey, Jonny Clayton and Berry van Peer and reached the quarter finals with a 10–5 win over Krzysztof Ratajski.[7] Rock lost in his quarter-final match 16–15 to James Wade.[8]
In December, at the 2024 World Championship, Rock suffered a shock 3–1 second round defeat to Berry van Peer.[9]
2024
editOn the 2024 PDC Pro Tour Rock reached the final of Players Championship 7, losing the final to Chris Dobey 8–4.[10][11]
On the PDC European Tour, Rock reached the quarter-final stage at both the 2024 German Darts Grand Prix (ET2) and the 2024 European Darts Grand Prix (ET4). Rock lost 6–5 in deciding legs in both quarter-finals, to Gerwyn Price at ET2 and Gary Anderson at ET4.[12] In May Rock won his first European Tour title, beating Jonny Clayton 8–4 in the final of the 2024 Dutch Darts Championship (ET7).[13]
World Championship results
editPDC
edit- 2023: Fourth round (lost to Jonny Clayton 3–4)
- 2024: Second round (lost to Berry van Peer 1–3)
Performance timeline
edit| Tournament | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PDC Ranked televised events | |||||||
| World Championship | DNQ | 4R | 2R | ||||
| UK Open | 1R | 3R | 5R | ||||
| World Matchplay | DNQ | 1R | 1R | ||||
| World Grand Prix | DNQ | 1R | 1R | ||||
| European Championship | 2R | 1R | 1R | ||||
| Grand Slam of Darts | 2R | QF | RR | ||||
| Players Championship Finals | 1R | 2R | |||||
| PDC Non-ranked events | |||||||
| Masters | DNQ | 1R | |||||
| World Youth Championship | W | QF | DNP | ||||
| Career statistics | |||||||
| Year-end ranking (PDC) | 36 | 21 | |||||
PDC European Tour
| Season | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | IDO DNQ |
GDC DNQ |
GDG DNQ |
ADO 2R |
EDO QF |
CDO 1R |
EDG DNQ |
DDC DNQ |
EDM DNQ |
HDT QF |
GDO 1R |
BDO DNQ |
GDT QF |
| 2023 | BSD DNQ |
EDO QF |
IDO 3R |
GDG 2R |
ADO F |
DDC 3R |
BDO SF |
CDO 3R |
EDG 3R |
EDM 3R |
GDO SF |
HDT 2R |
GDC 2R |
| 2024 | BDO 2R |
GDG QF |
IDO 3R |
EDG QF |
ADO 3R |
BSD 2R |
DDC W |
EDO 3R |
GDC WD |
FDT 3R |
HDT QF |
SDT SF |
CDO 2R |
| Performance Table Legend | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| W | Won the tournament | F | Finalist | SF | Semifinalist | QF | Quarterfinalist | #R RR L# |
Lost in # round Round-robin Last # stage |
DQ | Disqualified |
| DNQ | Did not qualify | DNP | Did not participate | WD | Withdrew | NH | Tournament not held | NYF | Not yet founded | ||
Nine-dart finishes
edit| Date | Opponent | Tournament | Method | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 November 2022 | 2022 Grand Slam of Darts | 3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 |
References
edit- ^ "Josh Rock - "Rocky"".
- ^ "Josh Rock - Mastercaller".
- ^ "PDC Order of Merit". PDPA. 24 November 2024. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
- ^ Gill, Samuel (15 January 2022). "Josh Rock seals final outright Tour Card with victory over Rafferty to finalise 2022 PDC UK Q-School". DartsNews. Retrieved 27 November 2022.
- ^ "Josh Rock: Antrim man's nine-darter as Van Gerwen gets fright in Grand Slam match". BBC Sport. 18 November 2022. Retrieved 27 November 2022.
- ^ Gill, Samuel (27 November 2022). "Rampant Rock eases past Girvan, breaks average record with 104 in winning 2022 PDC World Youth Championship". DartsNews. Retrieved 27 November 2022.
- ^ "Josh Rock: Northern Irishman reaches quarter-finals at Grand Slam of Darts". BBC Sport. 16 November 2023.
- ^ "Grand Slam of Darts: Luke Humphries edges Gary Anderson in a classic as James Wade beats Josh Rock". Sky Sports. 18 November 2023.
- ^ Gill, Samuel (23 December 2023). "Berry van Peer stuns Josh Rock, dumps out former World Youth champion at World Darts Championship". DartsNews. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
- ^ "Chris Dobey wins Players Championship 7 on day of nine-dart finishes in Leicester". Sky Sports. 8 April 2024. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
- ^ Gorton, Josh (8 April 2024). "Delight for Dobey with PC7 success in Leicester". www.pdc.tv. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
- ^ "Gary Anderson wins first PDC European Tour darts title in over a decade with victory over Ross Smith". Sky Sports. 22 April 2024. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
- ^ "Dutch Darts Championship: Michael van Gerwen falls in semi-finals as Josh Rock wins first European Tour title". Sky Sports. 26 May 2024. Retrieved 26 May 2024.