Peter Wright turns back the years to dethrone Luke Humphries at PDC World Darts

Luke Humphries left that arena stunned and reeling, left it the victim of one of the greatest ambushes ever to grace this stage, made him a former world champion. For the ailing and aging Peter Wright, the only conceivable reality in which he could win this match existed in his own mind, and for more than 40 scintillating minutes he set about sculpting that vision into magnificent flesh.

In a way, it was a vision imagined days in advance, when Humphries was still king of the palace and Wright was just the washed-up world number 17, and the possibility of this game was barely registered . But Wright knew what he was doing when he took a little dig at Humphries, predicting he would lose early in the tournament. “I'm one world title away from almost matching his career and I'm 25 years younger,” Humphries jokingly retorted. But on a distant level, a seed had been planted.

And when the battle came, Wright did not back down. All the old tics and tricks came out: changing his darts as if they were clubs in a golf bag, refusing bull shots even when Humphries arrived at the finish, showing the world number 1 a magnificent lack of respect. But the real target of Wright's mind games was himself: a daring experiment aimed at manifesting, through sheer will, the man he once was. All that remained was for him to cash the checks that his pride had written for him.

At that moment, something strange happened. The Palace crowd, often indifferent to Wright in the past, turned firmly behind him. Wright responded with darts of the finest vintage: an average of 101, backed by a 70% doubles rate, underpinned by an impeccable sense of timing, discipline, courage and wit. A streak of 17 consecutive shots was broken only by the crucial throwing break that gave Wright a 3-1 sets lead: an incredible 12 darts at the most important moment of the match.

Because here's the problem. Humphries didn't pitch badly at all. He averaged 99 and hit 56% of his doubles. He was excellent, almost world class. But set play is about mastering moments as well as processes, and here perhaps the prickly pre-match preamble played on his nerves a little.

Too much chaos seems to upset Humphries. Dimitri Van den Bergh at the UK Open. Luke Littler in the Premier League final. Playing the Grand Slam while his young son was sick at home. Of course, he can still throw brilliant darts when he's angry, when he's shaken, when he's distracted, when he's tired. But he's at his best when he keeps things simple.

What he doesn't miss, what he has never missed, is the bottle. He continued to land crucial doubles on his third dart. He continued to hold his throw, maintaining his impeccable standard, and waited for Wright to blink. But Wright didn't blink. He forced a decider in the fourth set with a check-out of 89. Opened 180-121-140 in the decider and cleaned it up in 12 stages. Humphries averaged 108 in this set and lost it.

The end came quickly afterwards. Wright's shriveled face collapsed into sobs, the facade finally melting away. There were fist pumps and hugs from Humphries, a man who over the past 12 months has carried his champion status with real class and skill, and who will certainly return. He may even have learned a thing or two from the old man here.

Afterward, Wright was asked how he did it. “Because I'm a two-time world champion,” he replied, still hoarse from the celebratory cold that had reduced him to muttering for most of the last week. “That’s why. I'm not too old. You just need to play well three weeks a year. These three weeks are all that matters. He will then play Stephen Bunting or Luke Woodhouse.

Wright wasn't the only player to bank on this little nugget of Christmas wisdom. Gerwyn Price is another former champion who sometimes seems to physically want to become the player he was. He beat fellow Welshman Jonny Clayton 4-2 with a little punch, a mini-roar and just the slightest doubt about his ability to go the distance after a flawed but resilient performance.

When it's good, it's irresistible. At one point in the second set he had an average of 111. The fact that he finished with an average of 92 shows you how alarmingly he fell after that point, and a more ruthless opponent than Clayton l 'probably would have done here. Instead, he's a quarterfinalist, a slowly building storm, a reminder that on this stage, you're never done until you're done.