‘Some Crap Excuse’ – Premier League Darts Star Called Out After Bizarre Soap Blunder
In the long and colourful history of post-match explanations in darts, it is safe to say none has quite matched what Josh Rock produced in the days following Premier League night two in Antwerp. The Northern Irishman lost 6-2 to Michael van Gerwen in the quarter-finals of the Belgian leg, was seen wiping his hands on his trousers and licking his fingers throughout the match, and then came forward with a confession that stopped the darts world in its tracks: he had washed his hands before going on stage, and the soap in the backstage toilets at the AFAS Dome had destroyed his grip entirely.
“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 at a press conference. “I just could not feel it at all.”
The culprit, by his account, was the particular chemical composition of Belgian soap — a substance that stripped the essential oils from his fingers and left him unable to feel the barrel of his dart whatsoever. No matter how much he licked his fingers or rubbed them along the dart to generate some friction, nothing worked. The damage had been done in the gents’ before he had thrown a single arrow.
It did not take long for the story to take on a life of its own. Sky Sports pundit Wayne Mardle christened the episode ‘Soapgate’, and it went around the darts world with gleeful speed. Whether it constituted a credible explanation or what some dismissed as a convenient excuse became the talking point of the week, with Rock finding himself the centre of some pointed mockery.
The man himself, to his credit, met it all with good humour. Ahead of night three in Glasgow, he revealed he had placed a packet of wipes next to his case on stage — a joke aimed squarely at the headlines — and laughed it off as the natural consequence of making the admission public. “Yeah, I was laughing and joking just before I went up on stage in Glasgow saying I had wipes beside my case for a laugh, just to make a bit of fun of it,” he said. “Stuff like that doesn’t bother me. I don’t dwell on anything bad, so I’m usually one who’s quick to forget everything that’s bad.”
He also revealed his plan to ensure it never happens again: chalk and wax, carried in his case from now on, available for deployment before any future pre-match bathroom visit. “I’ve got a plan B,” he said. “Now we’ve got a bit of chalk and wax in the case.”
The problem is that results have not improved with or without the grip issues. Rock has now lost all three of his Premier League matches 6-2, having gone down to Jonny Clayton in Newcastle, van Gerwen in Antwerp and Luke Humphries in Glasgow. He heads to his home night in Belfast on Thursday — at the SSE Arena, in front of his own fans, against World Championship finalist Gian van Veen — without a single point to his name.
His take on those results is characteristically unbothered. “Everybody’s just been playing better than me,” he said. “Johnny averaged 110 and I averaged 106, so there’s not much you can do unless you’re hitting 110s yourself.” It is a fair enough observation — the standard in this year’s Premier League has been exceptionally high — but the sequence of 6-2 defeats is a pattern that will need interrupting sooner rather than later if Rock is to justify his wildcard selection.
He is adamant the confidence is intact. “I haven’t been playing badly,” he said. “I think I’ve been unlucky — everybody’s just been playing well at the moment. Hopefully, that’ll turn around now.”
If there is a night for it to turn around, Belfast is it. Rock grew up in Broughshane, County Antrim, and the SSE Arena will be full of people who have watched his rise through the Northern Ireland darts scene and his World Cup triumph alongside Daryl Gurney last year. Whether the soap of Antwerp becomes a footnote or a defining chapter of his debut Premier League season may depend in large part on what happens when he steps up to the oche on Thursday night — with chalk and wax firmly in his back pocket, one would assume.
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