Scotland's Peter 'Snakebite' Wright has won his second World Darts Championship, defeating England's Michael Smith at London's Alexandra Palace on Tuesday (NZ time).
Wright, 51, claimed a 7-5 victory over 31-year-old Smith, and won his second World Darts Championship title in three years after also lifting the trophy at the start of 2020.
In a see-saw final, Wright raced out to a 2-0 lead in the opening sets, but only to see Smith claw his way back into the match and level the scores after the fourth.
Wright won the fifth for a 3-2 lead, before Smith fought back to win the sixth and seventh for a 4-3 lead in the first to seven contest - only to see the Scot level again by winning the eighth.
But Wright's nerves started to show in the ninth set, missing five shots at a double as Smith again took the lead, this time at 5-4.
As they had done all night, the scores were levelled again at the end of the 10th set, as Wright came back from two legs down to hit back, again, at 5-5.
That 10th set gave Wright all of the momentum, even as a grandstand finish appeared on the cards. From the end of the 10th, Wright closed out nine of the last 10 legs of the match, and in doing so sealed the title.
"Obviously I'm over the moon," Wright said afterwards.
"I can't explain what went wrong for 90 percent of that match. I just kept swapping darts, trying to find something.
"The atmosphere in here just affected my darts so badly, it affected Michael's as well, but, you know, it will be Michael's turn soon."
Wright netted a cool £500,000 (NZ$992,000) as prize money for the title, while Smith claimed £200,000 (NZ $397,000) as runner up.
