{"id":295364,"date":"2025-07-27T07:49:35","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T07:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/295364\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T07:49:35","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T07:49:35","slug":"luke-littler-v-josh-rock-northern-irelands-world-cup-hero-ready-to-face-good-friend-in-world-matchplay-semi-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/295364\/","title":{"rendered":"Luke Littler v Josh Rock: Northern Ireland\u2019s World Cup hero ready to face good friend in World Matchplay Semi-Final"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Broughshane man will face Luke The Nuke at Blackpool\u2019s Winter Gardens on Saturday evening. On offer, is place in Sunday\u2019s final against the winner of England\u2019s James Wade and Wales\u2019 Jonny Clayton.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the showdown, Rock revealed that he a Littler are good friends. <\/p>\n

The 24 year-old explained: \u201cIf I look at my phone, I bet he\u2019s text me saying, see you in the semi-final boy, because me and Littler are very, very close and not a lot of people know that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair haven\u2019t clashed since turning professional, but Rock has fond memories of a clash in Killarney long before either became household names.<\/p>\n

\"Luke<\/p>\n

Luke Littler poses with the trophy after winning night seven of the BetMGM Premier League at Utilita Arena<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThe first time we met was actually in Killarney before I won my tour card. Everybody had heard of him. He was in Lakeside, and I actually beat him 4-2 in that scenario. But in short format it means nothing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was in the WDF where you start from, and I would say when he won his tour card that he\u2019s matured a lot and we talk nearly every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking ahead to the Saturday night clash, Rock said: \u201cI\u2019m not feeling any extra pressure, and he clearly doesn\u2019t feel any pressure at all. I think personally between the two of us, it\u2019ll be fireworks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll give it large if I\u2019m well ahead. I\u2019m not like that, everybody knows that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m a good bit ahead and I feel it needs to be done, I\u2019ll do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m still ahead and there\u2019s no need to do it, there\u2019s no need to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The world champion agrees that their friendship will have no impact on Saturday\u2019s Semi-Final.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been good friends for quite a while. We\u2019re always in the backroom chatting and practising.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it really matters who you play, whether you\u2019re friends or not. As soon as you\u2019re on the stage, you\u2019re no one\u2019s friend. You\u2019re there to do a job,\u201d Littler told SportsBoom.co.uk.<\/a><\/p>\n

The first Semi-Final \u2013 between Wade and Clayton \u2013 is scheduled to start at 8pm with Littler and Rock to follow soon after.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Broughshane man will face Luke The Nuke at Blackpool\u2019s Winter Gardens on Saturday evening. On offer, is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[58911,1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-295364","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-keith-bailie","9":"tag-northern-ireland","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114924104158806266","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}