The unseen Scot behind Josh Rock's rise as he reveals where Luke Littler friendship started
The Northern Ireland hero is buzzing for a semi-final cracker with his big mate Luke Littler
In-form Josh Rock is predicting fireworks in his clash with big mate Luke Littler.
And the Northern Irish star has revealed the driving force behind his surge towards the Betfred World Matchplay crown.
Rock and Littler are both fighting to become the youngest-ever winners of the Blackpool darts showpiece and meet in a last-four cracker.
The 24-year-old can’t wait to battle with The Nuke having seen off the likes of Michael van Gerwen and Gerwyn Price on his run to the semis. He said: “If I want to win this title, I have to win it the hard way. Played Ross Smith, European champion. MVG, three-time world champion, Gezzy, one-time world champion. Now I’ve got one of my close friends, Luke, one-time world champion. If you want to win this title, you have to beat the best.
“It’s our first meeting in any PDC scenario, so I’m expecting him to hit everything and, hopefully, I hit everything and we’ll see who the winner is. Me and Littler are very, very close. Not a lot of people know that, but we are. The first time we met was actually in Killarney before I won my Tour card. Everybody heard of him and I actually beat him 4-2 in that scenario, but in the short format, it means nothing. It was in the WDF, where you start from.
“I would say when he won his Your card and because we’re in the same age bracket, well I’m six years older, but at the same time, he’s matured a lot, and we talk nearly every day. The two of us know how we can play, we can both win any tournament when we’re on our day, but when sometimes close friends come into the scenario, it can be difficult, but hopefully tomorrow for the two of us, it doesn’t.
“I’m not feeling the pressure and he obviously clearly doesn’t feel any pressure at all, so I think between the two of us, it’ll be fireworks.”
Rock is ready with the World Cup win under his belt and said: “I think I was a wee bit scared [in the past] of learning how to win, whereas I’m not now, I want to win and I’ll feed off winning, whereas back then, I was like: Oh, I’m going in the semi-final of the Grand Slam, whereas now, I’ve had the UK Open semi-final, won the World Cup and all that. I’m not scared to win now.”
Rock’s form has rocketed in recent months since his switch to join Target Darts and he also credits much of his rise to Scots manager Rab Bain. He said: “The best thing that’s ever happened to me, as soon as everything was done and dusted, especially Rab, he helped me out so much, mentally. Rab was a part of Target and the call that Gary [Plummer] wanted me from Target, I was like: Happy days.
“When I was a young kid at 12, I always wore a Target shirt anyway and I went: One day I’d love to be sponsored by Target, never knowing that I’d have the career I have now. And then when I got that phone call that Gary wanted me, I was a wee bit emotional.”