Clog almighty Michael van Gerwen ascended to seventh heaven as he overtook Phil Taylor to become the Premier League's greatest marksman.
Banking his seventh crown in 10 years at London's O2 Arena with an 11-5 win against Gerwyn Price in the final, Van Gerwen went past Taylor (six titles in eight years between 2005-12) to land the second-richest prize in darts.
A week ago, Van Gerwen pulled out of the last regular league meeting in Aberdeen complaining of a shoulder injury.
Either the three-times world champion was pulling a fast one or he has discovered the best physiotherapist known to mankind – because his finishing power here was simply irresistible.
When MVG was outgunned by Michael Smith at the PDC World Championship in January, he had lost as many finals at Ally Pally as he's won, and there were whispers that he had crested the summit as a force on the oche.
You must be joking.
He said: “I knew I had to produce something special tonight and I'm glad I was able to do it.
“We all know Gerwyn has been in fantastic form and Michael had won the last three weeks of the season, so I put a lot of pressure on myself – and I played some fantastic darts.”
Former world No.1 Price has been the most consistent player on the Premier League's 17-week travelling circus, topping the table and arriving at the Greenwich peninsula as favourite.
But it is hard to live with Van Gerwen when he is in this mood, ramming his spears into the board like a warrior on loan from Rorke's Drift.
The Iceman began 2023 with a futile attempt to drown out heckling crowds by wearing industrial-size ear defenders in a noise pollution stunt. But 144 days later, he is knocking out some of the best stuff of his career. Price didn't play badly in the final – he just couldn't live with Van Gerwen at full throttle.
As MVG reeled off checkouts of 170, 128 and 150, he hunted down the £275,000 winner's cheque. Price looked crestfallen to fall at the final hurdle and groaned: “I couldn't find a treble, I couldn't find a double but that's how it goes sometimes.
“This is the one that got away. Every time I threw a dart, the board was moving. I was missing by so far - I'm not sure what happened.”
With England rugby fly-half Marcus Smith in the crowd, trying to catch the party mood by wearing a 180 head-bopper, Van Gerwen looked unstoppable from the moment he took out 170 to move 4-2 up.
Price had demolished fellow Welshman Jonny Clayton 10-2 in the semi-finals, averaging 107.54 and sending the 'Ferret' on an early shuttle down the M4 with a classy 131 finish – treble 17, tops, tops.
On paper, Van Gerwen's 10-8 win against world No.1 Michael Smith in the other last-four clash was closer.
But it was nowhere near the quality of their World Championship classic at Ally Pally in January and Smith's sketchy scoring reduced the 11,000 crowd to near-silence.
“It's devastating to lose – my scoring disappeared too quickly and I struggled to get it back,” said the reigning world champion. “It's not how I wanted my season to finish but I'll put this behind me.”
