I was the star boy of darts before Luke Littler came along – let him be the big name, he handles it better than me

JOSH ROCK is happy to let Luke Littler be the “star boy” of darts.

The Northern Irishman was previously the hot prospect kid of the sport before ‘The Nuke’ stole all the headlines.

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Josh Rock was considered the star boy of darts before Luke Littler burst onto the scene[/caption]

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Littler won Premier League Darts on his first attempt this year aged just 17[/caption]

Rangers-daft Rock, 23, wowed all the pundits by hitting a nine-darter against Michael van Gerwen in the Grand Slam two years ago.

But now he’s happy to be in the shadow of the new teen sensation.

He told Het Nieuwsblad: “None of that bothers me. I like to fly under the radar, no problem at all.

“Luke can claim all the attention and therefore take the pressure off me.

“I’m happy with how I’m pitching the past few months and you can’t quite compare the hype either, so let me do it quietly.

“I was a star boy, he’s a star boy now. It’s really from a different level. He doesn’t care either.

“We’re good friends and I talk to him often, and that’s what I often say to him: ‘You really don’t care about anything, do you?’ He handles all the attention much better than I do. So let him be the star!”

New dad Rock smashed Jitse Van der Wal 6-0 with a 104 average in the Flanders Trophy before losing out to Chris Dobey in the third round.

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He added: “I didn’t touch a dart for two weeks. My daughter only recently came into this world so I devoted all my attention to her.

“So that thumbs up was for her because it was my first competition as a dad.

“I love the Belgians. For the past two years, they have been by far the most respectful audience.

“There’s no whistling, there’s no booing. It doesn’t matter who’s on stage.”