GURNEY QUESTIONS ROCK’S ‘CRAP’ SOAP EXCUSE

DARYL GURNEY has questioned Josh Rock’s “crap excuse about soap” following his recent Premier League outing.

‘Rocky’ blamed the handwash in the venue toilets at Antwerp for leaving his hands numb and costing him crucial grip on stage.  

World No.9 Rock slumped to a 6-2 defeat to Michael van Gerwen on Night Two and averaged just 79.34 in the bout. 

The Antrim thrower is yet to win a game in the weekly invitational tournament and heads to Belfast with a point to prove against Gian van Veen.  

Gurney revealed he has been privately advising Rock in recent weeks and says his biggest weakness may actually be his personality. 

He said: “I’ve been giving him advice for the last couple of weeks, but that’s between me and him, so I won’t disclose that. 

“If he isn’t an absolute animal in Belfast, I’m going to have a word with him. 

“He is deservedly in the Premier League. I don’t think he has shown his potential yet. 

“I think he was unlucky in the first match — he averaged 102 but got beat by Jonny [Clayton]. 

“I didn’t see his game, but it was some crap excuse about soap in Antwerp. 

“I’ll be there in Belfast to support him. I’ll give him a shake because sometimes his problem is he’s really too nice. 

“He needs to get into his own zone and into his own head that everybody is here to beat me. 

“Instead of thinking, I am here to beat everybody else. I’ve been there. I have lived and breathed it. 

“It is a different animal now, the Premier League. I hope next week, whoever he is playing in the first round, he wins.” 

Two-time major winner Gurney teamed up with Rock to win the World Cup of Darts for Northern Ireland last year. 

Gurney featured in the Premier League from 2018-2020 and insists Rock must start building momentum quickly. 

He added: “I don’t know how Josh works. I really don’t, because he is a very calm and collected player. 

“I honestly think nothing annoys him. Whenever I played there, I treated it like a World Championship final. 

“If you talk to me now about the Premier League in Belfast, I will still get goosebumps. I beat Rob Cross there just after he became World Champion. 

“The following year they put me against Rob Cross, and I won the European the weekend before. 

“I had pains in my arm. He beat me. But if I was fully fit, no joke, I don’t care who they are — Luke Littler or Luke Humphries — for me to play in Belfast, they would need four darts to beat me. 

“That is how I feel because I was so up for it. I would treat it like a World Championship final. 

“Unless Josh does that, he will get found out again like he has in the last couple of weeks. 

“I hope he does get the points on the board because, if he doesn’t, he will get found out again.”

Image by Taylor Lanning.