Deep down, all of us knew this was going to occur in some unspecified time in the future. From the second Luke Littler stepped by way of the doorways of Alexandra Palace in 2023 and began throwing darts from the gods, a countdown had begun that might ineluctably, irrevocably finish with the Sid Waddell Trophy hoisted aloft in his arms.

And but, with the second probably hours away, the considered it nonetheless appears by some means unreal, illusory, transgressive. Darts is on the verge of a brand new age, a tectonic shift in its historical past, reputation and cultural footprint.

Eric Bristow, Phil Taylor, Raymond van Barneveld, Michael van Gerwen: seems this was the preamble. When the chroniclers of the longer term come to write down the story of this sport, they’ll recognise two eras: earlier than Littler, and after.

It’s not solely his expertise, though the expertise is otherworldly, and it’s not solely his youth, though the youth is startling, and it’s not solely the pace of his rise, as violent and concussive as this has been. In virtually each facet, it is a participant rewriting the traditions and truisms of darts, rejecting the whole lot we thought we knew about it.

That this a commerce and never an artwork, a talent to be honed and hardened over years, not a form of fully-formed perfection that emerges like a flawless debut album. That this apprenticeship is usually served within the pub, and fairly often liberally topped up within the apply room earlier than the beginning of play.

That stagecraft – the method of commanding a wild and sometimes hostile crowd – is the final and hardest of all of the disciplines to grasp. That enjoying to the gallery will inevitably finish in embarrassment. That you must actually try to keep away from leaving double 15 for those who can presumably assist it. That no person wins the Premier League, the Grand Slam and the World Championship of their first full season within the sport. That no person actually cares about darts.

Are we getting forward of ourselves? Actually the nice Van Gerwen want to assume so, as he tries to align the celebrities for a fourth world crown, a restoration to the throne that after felt like his by birthright. Van Gerwen refers to Littler as “Surprise Boy” and also you surprise if there is part of him that might relish this triumph greater than any of the 47 different main titles he has received to this point: a chance to face within the path of the nice wave and push it again along with his personal two arms, simply as an ageing Taylor did to the rising Van Gerwen himself in 2013.

So as to take action Van Gerwen should play higher than he has performed for years, higher than he performed in dispatching Chris Dobey 6-1 within the night’s first semi-final, higher than the twinkly-eyed Stephen Bunting did in shedding by the identical scoreline towards Littler within the second. Bunting averaged greater than 100 and will in all probability argue he deserved higher than the beating he took. But it surely was a brutal lesson in vanishing margins, a reminder that towards Littler the window of alternative is so slim it might as nicely be a trick of the sunshine.

And Bunting did have his possibilities. He had an opportunity to win the primary set by taking out 92, missed two darts at double eight within the second set that allowed Littler to interrupt, missed double 13 in set 4 that might have given him the darts within the deciding leg. Over the entire match his checkout price of 36% in all probability wanted to be 10 factors increased.

However the cruellest blow was a dart he may do nothing about. Sitting on double prime on the finish of the sixth set, and hopeful of decreasing the hole to 4-2, Littler pulled out an 84 end on the bull, celebrating by reeling throughout the stage, slamming his fists collectively and mainly providing out all the crowd within the automobile park afterwards. “It was shot,” he stated afterwards along with his attribute understatement. “It simply needed to go.”

Littler completed with a mean of 105 and you could possibly nonetheless argue – as in his earlier matches – that we’re nonetheless but to see the easiest of him. In some ways he has regarded extra human, extra of an adolescent, than he ever did 12 months ago. Now everybody expects. Now he does too.

A storm is coming to the Palace on Friday evening. There will likely be a tv viewers of tens of millions, individuals who have by no means watched darts earlier than, individuals who might by no means watch darts once more. And naturally that is by no means over till the final arrow is thrown. However Van Gerwen is enjoying greater than an opponent right here. How do you stem the tide of historical past? How do you presumably comprise one thing that has not the slightest sense of its personal boundaries?