And when Lewis was free, when the darts flowed from his hand like water, when the 180s piled up around his ears, the man they called “Jackpot” could make this unfathomably difficult sport look like the simplest thing in the world.
At the start of 2016, when he reached his last world final, Lewis was still one of the biggest names in the sport.
The first of those against Gary Anderson featured Lewis hitting the first nine-dart finish in a world final.
He chose Taylor, Michael van Gerwen, Raymond van Barneveld and Lewis: a player whose body of work barely registers against the other three, perhaps the only member of that quartet who could walk down the street unrecognised.
His Grand Slam semi-final against his mentor Phil Taylor, in which Lewis averaged 111 and lost, is still one of the greatest matches ever played.
