Despite his 3-1 lead, you felt Gerwyn Price knew this final had just squirmed free of his grasp. Turning away while wearing a smirk of disgust, he shook his head and placed his darts down on the table.
A few feet away, Luke Humphries was getting a closer look at where he'd put his own arrows. Having just delivered a maximum, now there was one in treble 19, another in the vast expanse of the 16 segment and the third sticking out of that familiar double 16. Having claimed the set, Humphries paused for a few seconds, lingering to admire his final dart. Where once there had been only freefall, now there was a foothold.
A younger, more combustible Price would have cursed the darting gods for mocking him so cruelly -- he only needed his favoured 'tops' to take full control of this final -- but when the momentum swung behind his opponent, Price offered only a friendly embrace and a joke as the pair made their way off the stage for the break arm in arm. From there, Price was powerless as the match which had earlier bent to his will so totally, snapped back and probably left him a little dazed.
- Luke Humphries roars back to win Grand Prix title
"I felt like the biggest shot of my career was that 180, 105-out shot. Because if I don't take that out and he takes it 4-0 then it is game over," a triumphant Humphries later admitted. "There literally is then the hope of trying to win a set to not get brushed.
"As soon as I went 3-1, I kind of relaxed and thought, 'well, I've got a set now. I can just try and win a couple more.' And then all of a sudden I'm 3-3 and I'm thinking, how am I in this position? And 4-3 up and I'm going to the break thinking, 'now I can win.'
"I bombed a load of darts in the eighth or seventh set, whatever it was, I let him back in. I'm thinking, 'you've just thrown it away again.' Then I got it back again. So yeah, it was a crazy game of darts."
There had been something fresh and succulent about the narrative this contest offered in the build-up. Humphries on a five-match losing streak in major finals and Price looking to get his hands on a piece of silverware for the first time in four years.
All that is because, in truth, this was a meeting between two imperfect players who are still trying to find their place in the Luke Littler-verse they now find themselves in. As becomes increasingly apparent with every Littler-themed interview question they attempt to answer, Humphries, Price and every other darts player exist in relation to the double world champion. I'm even dedicating a paragraph to Littler here despite him being knocked out by Luke Woodhouse in the first round on Monday.
That shock exit breathed new life into this tournament, offering the chance for his rivals to take centre-stage and break up the monoculture. Here was Price going Super Saiyan like Jonny Bairstow in the summer of 2019, racking up an average which at one point stood north of 130 and earned him the opening set in 3 ½ minutes. After the Welshman's three-set salvo, Humphries' nerveless timing came to the fore as he shaved off the side of Price's lead bit by bit, before it all came crashing down. For the darts cognoscente, it was like untethering from the dopamine hit of the Sidemen and rediscovering the classics.
Even Price, in his own way, saw the brighter side of a third major final defeat in the space of 71 days. "I don't care. I'm enjoying darts. I'm enjoying life. I'm going to be a farmer, so I don't give a s---," he told Sky Sports. "Luke's a great player. I'm earning really a great living. I've got the best family. I don't mind."
Sunday's final might mark the beginning of Humphries' third act. Having come through personal struggles in the early part of his career before becoming world champion in 2024, he has since fallen back into being one of the rest of the chasing pack, making a handsome living from being the fall guy for the sport's boy king. Here, though, that stillness at the oche was back, that slow draw and release of the longest darts in the sport seemed more effortless than it has been of late.
"I needed this to give me a bit of confidence. It's been a torrid 15, 18 months for myself after losing so many major finals." Humphries even had the scar to prove it, owing to an allergic reaction some of the makeup applied to his forehead while filming the second series of the 'Bullseye' relaunch last week.
"Gez was amazing for them first three legs, absolutely insane," Humphries continued. "And I'm not just saying this, but he is going to win a major title soon. It's just written in the stars -- he can't keep playing as well as he does and not win.
"He played a part in an amazing final there. I almost feel like maybe I wasn't the... Well, I don't think I was the best player. He was, but sometimes in life, in this game, the real player that should win doesn't get to win, but he'll win some big titles. Maybe he wins the Worlds -- he'll win something big -- but yeah, I'm just happy to get one back and to have that barren run of losses of major finals off my back and it feels really special. This really means the world to me."