Josh Rock is a Northern Irish darts player nicknamed Rocky. On 26 February 2026, playing Premier League darts in his home city of Belfast for the first time, he was 5-1 down and heading for defeat when he hit a nine-dart finish in front of his home crowd. Afterwards he said it felt like winning the World Championship. Here's what happened that night, and how Josh Rock got there.
Who is Josh Rock: left school at 16 to play darts
Josh Rock was born on 13 April 2001 in Antrim, Northern Ireland, and lives in Broughshane, a village near Ballymena. He left school at 16 to focus on darts. 2022 was his breakout year: in January he won a PDC Tour Card at Q-School, and in November he became PDC World Youth Champion, beating Nathan Girvan 6-1 in the final. At that year's Grand Slam of Darts he also hit his first televised nine-darter, against Michael van Gerwen, though he lost the match.
2025: World Cup winner for Northern Ireland
At the 2025 World Cup of Darts, Rock teamed up with veteran Daryl Gurney and won the title for Northern Ireland, edging Wales' Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton 10-9 in the final. In January 2026 he was named in the Premier League, the PDC's weekly touring league for eight of the world's top players, for the first time.
26 February 2026, SSE Arena, Belfast
Night four of the Premier League came to Belfast's SSE Arena, Rock's first time playing the event in his home city. In the quarter-final he faced Dutchman Gian van Veen and was outplayed for most of the match, trailing 5-1. In the seventh leg he opened with back-to-back 180s, leaving 141, then hit treble 20, treble 19, double 12. Nine darts. The arena erupted.
There was no comeback: he lost 6-2. But he became the first Northern Irish player to hit a nine-darter in the Premier League, and took home a set of solid gold darts from sponsor BetMGM, worth around £30,000. Belfast had seen Premier League nine-darters before, including Adrian Lewis against James Wade in 2016. Read how Adrian Lewis got the nickname Jackpot.
"It's like I've won the World Championship": what Josh Rock said
Belfast's News Letter quoted him straight after the match: "It's like I've won the World Championship, but I've hit a nine-darter in front of my home crowd, so that's just nuts." He told Sky Sports: "My body is in overdrive. I am shaking like a leaf."
One thing that often gets misquoted: he didn't say it was better than a world title. In the same report he added that winning the World Cup for Northern Ireland was even better, but that as an individual achievement this was unbelievable.
Why losing still felt like winning
A nine-dart finish is the hardest leg in darts: 501 in nine darts with no margin for error, something most pros hit only a handful of times on TV, if ever (see some famous ones in our nine-dart finish history). Doing it where you grew up, in front of family and neighbours, means more than winning one league night. He said afterwards he didn't care if he never hit another nine-darter.
Nine darts is a long way off, but a game of 501 isn't. The Phoenix soft-tip machines at AI DARTS run 24 hours, and your scores can be saved in our member system. Want your own set first? Check out aidarts.club. Hungry after a few legs? The menu is here.