Josh Rock has attributed his error-strewn 6-2 Premier League quarter-final defeat to Michael van Gerwen in Antwerp last week to an unlikely culprit: the soap he used in the bathroom before going on stage. The 24-year-old Northern Irishman, seen repeatedly wiping his hands on his trousers and licking his fingers during the contest, believes the soap stripped his grip, leading to his inability to hold the darts properly.
"I went to the toilet just before I went on stage and obviously you wash your hands after going to the toilet, so I put the soap all over my hands and the next minute I'm up there, and I was like, 'This isn't going to go well'," Rock explained. "I just could not feel it at all. That was the first time it's happened. It must be just whatever soap was in the toilet at Antwerp that I used and it just obviously took all the oils out of my finger and lost all grip."
Rock, the world number nine, admitted his natural reaction to the struggles against seven-time champion Van Gerwen was to "laugh straight away" because he "knew what the problem was." He has now taken preventive measures, packing his own chalk and wax for future events. "So now we've got a plan B, I've got a bit of chalk and wax in the case from now on," he said, noting he didn't need it at the recent Players Championship where conditions were fine.
Putting the Antwerp performance down to misfortune, Rock has moved on as he prepares to face world number two Luke Humphries in night three of the competition in Glasgow on Thursday, followed by a home crowd appearance in Belfast on 26 February. "If I played like that and didn't know what the problem was then, obviously we have an issue," he added. "But I knew I couldn't grip my hands and no matter how much I was trying to lick my fingers, rub my finger up and down a barrel to get my fingers rough, it wasn't working, so I just let that one go."
