Northern Ireland's Josh Rock hailed as 'one of the best players on this planet' after World Cup heroics
Daryl Gurney hailed his Northern Ireland World Cup team-mate Josh Rock as “one of the best players on this planet” after his stunning 144 checkout helped the defending champions book their spot in Sunday’s semi-final with victory over Latvia.
With the scores tied at 7-7 and their opponents sitting on 24 for a shock victory, world number seven Rock stepped up and produced perfection, sparking jubilant scenes of celebration on stage in Frankfurt.
Last year, Rock and Gurney created history by winning Northern Ireland’s maiden World Cup crown, beating Wales in a dramatic final, and have moved one step closer to sealing consecutive triumphs.
Broughshane native Rock has cemented his spot amongst the world’s elite in recent years and his progress was rewarded with a spot in the most recent Premier League.
Although Rock finished bottom of the table, Gurney is clear that his 25-year-old partner deserves a place amongst the best.
“That is why this man is in the Premier League,” said Gurney. “He fully deserves to be in the Premier League.
“It takes cojones the size of this man’s to take that out under that much pressure because they were left on 24.
“This man just keeps on doing it. I am more than privileged to be partnered with this man.
“This man may have finished bottom of the Premier League but he is one of the best dart players on this planet.
“For him to go and do that under that much pressure at 7-7, there are only 10 people on the planet that can do that and he is one of them.”
Northern Ireland, who were given a bye to round two as one of the top-four seeds, started their campaign with victory over Belgium on Saturday evening and will now face either Netherlands or hosts Germany in the semi-finals.
Having celebrated success 12 months ago, Rock is clear that is once again Northern Ireland’s goal.
“When you play for your country you want to give everything and he gave me the shot for the 144,” said Rock. “I took it out as sweet as a nut so I am very happy.
“We did exactly what we did last night and made it hard for ourselves. We need to make sure to get in front and keep in front and we didn’t do that.
“But listen, we like doing it the hard way and we are here to win this trophy. We need to give ourselves a kick up the backside and get going from the start.”