Gerwyn Price's remarkable journey from rugby union to the very summit of darts is now complete after becoming the first Welshman to be crowned PDC world champion as well as the organisation's world number one.
The Iceman, who was scoring tries in a domestic cup final for Cross Keys at the Millennium Stadium in 2012 before switching sports permanently two years later when coming through Q School, produced the kind of blockbusting performance in a one-sided 7-3 victory against Gary Anderson that had already helped him win five other major titles since his career well and truly took off with that infamous 2018 Grand Slam of Darts triumph over the Flying Scotsman.
Price's finishing during the majority of the contest was remarkable and at one point his checkout percentage was almost 80%, while he was frighteningly faultless on double top with his first 13 attempts at it.
During this breathtaking run that blew a stunned Anderson away, the 35-year-old also broke the record for the highest set average in World Championship history when he won the sixth with a ludicrous mark of 136.64 thanks to an 11-darter with 100 checkout, a 12-darter that he finished with a 161 checkout and then a 10-darter which was agonisingly close to a perfect leg.
Price's winner's cheque of £500,000 ends Michael van Gerwen's seven-year run at the top of the PDC's Order of Merit, which now means he's only the second active player to know what being world number one feels like.
He's the 10th player overall to reach the top of the rankings, following in the footsteps of Alan Warriner, Dennis Priestley, Rod Harrington, Phil Taylor, Peter Manley, John Part, Colin Lloyd, Raymond van Barneveld and van Gerwen.
Indeed, Taylor in his pomp may have struggled to deal with such an astronomical standard of play but he would certainly have punished him more than Anderson did when his levels started to drop as the inevitable finishing line nerves approached.
Even the double top bed started to shrink in size the closer to destiny he got but thankfully for him, the 2015 and 2016 champion was too far back and even started missing more and more doubles himself when the prospect of staging a dramatic comeback stopped looking so impossible.
The first signs of pressure finally started to show when Price led 2-0 in the seventh set and after spurning his first attempt at double top, Anderson clawed his way back and pinched it on a decider.
The Welshman, who also won the World Cup for his country this season as well as the World Grand Prix and World Series Finals, seemed to settle the wobbles by edging the eighth 3-2 for a 6-2 lead and then moved 2-0 up in the ninth but that's when they returned in abundance.
Price spurned nine match darts over the next two legs as Anderson kept the final alive - just - and looked as though he might take the 10th set as well before blowing two doubles when leading 2-1 and then a further four in the decider either side of the eventual champion missing another two title darts.
Eventually Price pinned double five with his 12th match dart and although those late struggles to hurl himself over over the line brought his average down to 100.08 and his checkout percentage to 45.61%, it was his performance over the first six sets of this final which will live long in the memory.
"I've never felt pressure like that in my life. It was so tough to hit that winning double but the feeling after doing it is so difficult to explain. I'm the World Champion; it's unbelievable.
"I'm proud to be world number one too. It's probably even tougher to achieve that than it is to become World Champion. To manage both is incredible for me."
His historic triumph makes Price the 10th PDC world champion since it was first staged way back in 1994 and the first to have achieved the feat as a product of Qualifying School, having earned his maiden Tour Card in 2014 when MVG had just reached world number one.
MVG drops down to second but remains ahead of last year's world champion Peter Wright.
Playing in his fifth Ally Pally final - 10 years after his first and four since his last - Anderson never really got going apart from landing the seventh 170 checkout of the tournament and he finished up with a disappointing 94.25 average that wasn't helped by missing 49 attempts at doubles and being outgunned on the 180s front by 13 to 10.
"Getting beat in the final is disappointing but I'll give myself a pat on the back for getting this far," said Anderson, who has still moved up five places to eighth in the Order of Merit following a run that few predicted after a troubled season with injuries and form despite reaching the World Matchplay final and the Premier League play-offs.
"What I've done over the last few weeks has been a big bonus for me. I started the final alright but I started to struggle and you can't do that against players like Gerwyn."
Set Scores: 2-3, 3-1, 1-3, 1-3, 1-3, 0-3, 3-2, 2-3, 3-2, 2-3
SCROLL FURTHER DOWN FOR THE FULL LEG-BY-LEG MATCH REPORT
2018 Grand Slam of Darts (16-13 v Gary Anderson)
2019 Grand Slam of Darts (16-6 v Peter Wright)
2020 World Series of Darts Finals (11-9 v Rob Cross)
2020 World Grand Prix (5-2 v Dirk van Duijvenbode)
2020 World Cup of Darts (3-0 v England)
2017 UK Open (6-11 v Peter Wright)
2019 European Championship (6-11 v Rob Cross)
2019 Players Championship Finals (9-11 v Michael van Gerwen)
2020 UK Open (9-11 v Michael van Gerwen)
Belgian Darts Championship (2020)
International Darts Open x2 (2018, 2019)
Players Championship x8 (2016 x2, 2019 x3, 2020 x4)
1950: After plenty of build-up on Sky Sports, the players are now out on the stage. Let battle commence!
1925: Now here's some suggested tips for anyone who fancies a flutter on the match, which will probably start in around 10 minutes or so. I did write an in-depth preview of the final which features a lot of what we've discussed in this blog so I may as well just list my selections to save you some reading time (but click here if you want all the reasons!)
Yes, I'm aware I've backed both Gary and Gerwyn with the first two bets but as I mention in my analysis, it should be a match of such high standard that this is potentially making a profit on whoever wins - although running the risk of losing twice! Overall I'd say my 'banker' bet is both players to hit 14 or more 180s each. They'd need to play 51 legs (maximum is 65) to reach that target based on their current 180 per leg ratios but I expect them to find another level from that tonight.
1920: Just so you don't have to do any number crunching from their route to the final stats below, I've done it for you. Once again, Gary Anderson's figures are on the left of each category...
In terms of averages, they have obviously been very similar overall, while their match-by-match averages have also followed a similar spread between the 92 and 100 mark. Neither have gone ridiculously high or into the tragic depths of the 80s.
Price has been more prolific on the 180s - and also has a marginally higher maximum per leg ratio - but the biggest difference between the pair has been the Welshman's superior finishing, especially in the 100+ range.
He equalled Michael van Gerwen's long-standing record for most ton+ checkouts in a single World Championship match with eight against Stephen Bunting, who also contributed to a record-breaking combined tally of 13, while he also managed 12 in his previous four matches which means his 100+ checkout per leg won rate is an insane 0.24. Anderson's 0.15 isn't too shabby by any means so let's hope for more blockbusting finishing tonight.
1915: By the way, if you want to look back at all the round-by-round results and match averages from the entire World Championship then just click here.
1910: By contrast, Gerwyn Price's run to his maiden Ally Pally final has been far more nerve-jangling for his supporters - although he never seemed fazed even during two last-leg deciders...
Price initially struggled to show the form that had helped him win so many titles this season and three of his first four matches went the full distance in sets and two of those - against Brendan Dolan and Daryl Gurney - went to sudden death legs, with Price pinching them both under intense pressure when his opponents waited on 72 and 52 respectively.
Heading into the semi-finals, Price and Bunting had been involved in four of the 15 sudden-death deciders during the tournament and it looked as though another decider was on the cards when the Iceman trailed 4-3 before he won nine of the next 11 legs to race through the next three sets.
The Welshman did win one match at a canter when defeating Mervyn King 4-1 but that was achieved with an average of 97.71 and he'll need to perform to the standards he showed against Bunting at the very least to live with a legend who knows exactly what it takes to win a best-of 13-sets showdown.
1905: So how did both players get this far? Let's start with Gary Anderson...
Gary Anderson has pretty much coasted through but his one major scare came in that bizarre battle with Mensur Suljovic last Monday night - after which he'd express his frustration over the apparent rising gamesmanship in darts.
He got over that quickly and dropped a combined 11 legs against Devon Petersen and Dirk van Duijvenbode, who have both been two of the breakthrough stars of 2020, thanks largely to his ruthless finishing of over 50% which was a significant improvement on what he managed against Madars Razma and Suljovic.
His finishing dropped off again in his semi-final with Chizzy and he was quick to brand that performance 'terrible' despite still managing to post a second 100+ average of the tournament so far.
1855: Touching on the below update it's perhaps important to note that Gerwyn Price has scooped eight of his titles this season - more than any other player - having won the World Grand Prix, World Series, World Cup, Belgian Darts Championship and four Players Championship events on the floor. As previously mentioned, Anderson's sole title was the Players Championship event back in February in which he beat Price along the way.
1850: If you want a refresh on their major career honours so far, then search wikipedia no longer. Gary Anderson has won 46 PDC titles overall since coming over from the BDO - where he'd never managed to claim the Lakeside title - and 15 of those have been in front of the TV cameras. There's always debate about what consists as a major but in the lists below I've just ruled out the globe-trotting 'World Series' events - of which he's managed to win six - but kept in the Champions League and the World Cup of Darts. That leaves him with nine 'majors' by my unofficial reckoning but it could have been more had he not lost as many as 12 major finals, including this year's World Matchplay to Dimitri Van den Bergh.
As for Gerwyn Price, well he began picking up floor titles with two in 2016 but his overall tally has shot up 17 since 2018 with five majors (although my inclusion of this year's World Series of Darts Finals may be called into question) and 10 non-televised ones. He has also lost four major finals including the 2020 UK Open to Michael van Gerwen.
GARY ANDERSON'S MAJOR TITLES
GERWYN PRICE'S MAJOR TITLES
1835: Right, so we've toughed on their biggest previous meeting but what about the rest of their head-to-head record. This is their 16th ever meeting but their first in set-play format and although Gary Anderson holds the edge with eight wins, Gerwyn Price has won five of their last six on TV, including 'that' final. They are 2-2 this year, with both of Price's coming in the Premier League post lockdown whereas Anderson's two both came in February. One of them came on the floor of the Players Championship arena where he went on to win his sole title of 2020. Here's all the TV results and those in 2020, with Anderson's figures on the left in each one.
1825: Before we go into head-to-head records more closely, you'll no doubt have heard plenty of references to the infamous 2018 Grand Slam of Darts final over the past 24 hours. Neither player have ever liked talking about it - especially Price due to the massive £10,000 fine that ate considerably into his winnings of £100,000 - and although they'll never be on each others' Christmas card list, there does at least seem to be a mutual 'respect' of sorts now which has ensured none of their five televised meetings since have spiralled out of control.
Here is how that match unfolded but you "may" want to fast-forward to 53 minutes and 10 seconds.
The list of all 10 - plus a link to watch them all - is available below but here's the moment Gary Anderson got himself on that list during his stunning performance against Jelle Klaasen in the 2016 semi-finals.
1810: Gary Anderson obviously knows what it likes to handle the pressure of the grandest stage of all on the biggest night of all having featured in four Ally Pally finals. He was beaten 7-5 in the first of those by Adrian Lewis in a 2011 classic but four years later he'd eventually get his hands on the Sid Waddell Trophy when overcoming Phil Taylor in just the fourth final ever to go to a deciding set.
Twelve months on he'd get revenge on Lewis by the same scoreline he'd lost by but he was unable to make it a historic three titles in a row when he was stunned by a performance from Michael van Gerwen that would have even challenged Taylor in his absolute pomp. Here's highlights from both of Anderson's crowning moments.