Darts historians will rightly still tell you that Phil Taylor is the best who ever threw a dart but, at the age still of only 18, it is increasingly clear that Littler really could set new standards in the sport.

In winning 18 out of 19 matches since making his Ally Pally debut aged 16 just over two years ago, Littler has also averaged in excess of 100 in 15 of those matches. It is a genuinely incredible ratio that not even Taylor or Michael van Gerwen come close to matching. In now reaching a consecutive hat-trick of finals, Littler also already stands only with Taylor, Eric Bristow, Dennis Priestley and Gary Anderson in the sport’s history.

“It was crazy; a few boos, a few cheers… they have been a good crowd,” said Littler, summing up another raucous night when he again had to deal with far from universal approval.

That is the inevitable way of being such a dominant champion but, unlike Monday when he made matters worse by reacting, Littler played along while grinning and applauding a crowd that included the singer Lewis Capaldi and his friend and recent jungle king, Morgan Burtwistle (aka Angry Ginge).

As for the actual match, even against an opponent in Searle who has been relentlessly deadly on his finishing, Littler was only really pushed in the opening three sets. Having held throw to earlier take the lead at 1-0, Searle, nicknamed Heavy Metal, then made a series of elementary mistakes in the deciding leg of the third set.