Heavily emotional Josh Rock wins first Euro Tour title at Dutch Darts Championship

Josh Rock has walked away with the title at the 2024 Dutch Darts Championship. 'Rocky' managed to win a European Tour title for the first time in his career by dealing with Jonny Clayton in the final.

The Northern Irishman was close to the title on the Euro Tour once before. It was Clayton of all people who kept him from the final victory at the Austrian Darts Open in 2023 . This time, Rock took ultimate revenge. Rock played an excellent tournament at the Euro Tour event in Rosmalen, which started for him on Saturday night with a 6-3 win over Dirk van Duijvenbode. Then Cameron Menzies was eliminated 6-5 in the third round. In the last eight, he beat Gerwyn Price 6-3 before also beating Martin Schindler 7-3.

At the other end of the bracket, Clayton emerged as a finalist. 'The Ferret' first won 6-4 over Marin van Velzen, and then was too strong 6-3 over defending champion Dave Chisnall. Ryan Searle could not give Clayton a hard time after that either, as Clayton won 6-2 over Searle in the quarterfinals. In the last four, he fell behind 0-4 and 4-6 to Michael van Gerwen, but Clayton still managed to win 7-6.

It rained breaks in the early stages of the final. Rock was the first to break to lead 2-0, but three more breaks followed. Rocky was leading 3-2 after five legs, but Clayton tied the game with a 14-darter. Both players then held their own leg for a 4-4 lead after eight legs. Clayton missed two break chances in the ninth leg before Rock made it 5-4 via double 18. The break then did come from the Northern Irishman, who threw a 13-darter to double the lead to 6-4. A very mediocre leg then went to Rock with a 23-darter, before he locked the match at 8-4. After exploiting his match dart, Rock burst into tears while also pointing his finger at the sky.

It is his second PDC ranking title for Rock, having previously won a Players Championship tournament in 2022. This title moves Rock up from 20th place to 18th on the PDC Order of Merit.