Josh Rock has attributed his heavy 6-2 Premier League defeat to Michael van Gerwen in Antwerp last week to an unexpected culprit: Belgian soap.
The Northern Irish darts player revealed that a trip to the backstage toilets immediately before taking to the stage left him unable to properly grip his darts during the quarter-final clash.
“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.
The soap stripped essential oils from his fingers, destroying his grip entirely.
Rock said the sensation was immediately apparent, leaving him with no feel for his darts whatsoever.
“I just could not feel it at all,” he said.
Despite his best efforts to remedy the situation mid-match, nothing worked.
Josh Rock struggled against Michael van Gerwen in the Premier League last week
|PA
“I actually laughed at it straight away, because I knew what the problem was,” Rock said.
“If I played like that and didn’t know what the problem was then, obviously, we have an issue.”
He attempted various solutions during the contest, including licking his fingers and rubbing them along the barrel to create some friction, but the damage had already been done.
Five facts darts fans might not know | PA/GBNEWS“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,” he added.
The incident has prompted Rock to take precautionary measures 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.
The backup supplies proved unnecessary at the Players Championship this week, where Rock experienced no similar issues.
“I didn’t have to use it this week at the Players Championship, it was fine, but it must have been the soap I used,” he confirmed.
Rock emphasised this was an entirely new experience for him.
Josh Rock faces Luke Humphries in the Premier League tonight
| PA“That was the first time it’s happened. That was definitely the first time,” he said. “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 now turns his attention to tonight’s Premier League fixture in Glasgow, where he faces Luke Humphries in search of his first points of his debut campaign.
The Northern Irishman, a devoted Rangers supporter, is hopeful the Scottish crowd will back him given Celtic’s Europa League commitments this evening.
“Luckily, Celtic are playing in the Europa League tomorrow, so hopefully they’re all out and there’s only Rangers fans in,” he said.
“It’s on the day. If I turn up, I win. If I don’t turn up, I don’t win.”