THE William Hill World Darts Championship semi-finals conclude the action in the 2017 calendar year as Phil Taylor, Jamie Lewis, Rob Cross and reigning champion Michael van Gerwen do battle at Alexandra Palace.
Taylor's bid to crown his glittering darts career with a 17th World Championship sees him face qualifier Jamie Lewis at the last four stage.
Taylor has his heart set on bringing down the greatest career in darts history by conquering the world one last time, and it could be that he has to dethrone defending champion and world number one Van Gerwen to do so.
Welsh qualifier Lewis and the PDC's newest superstar Cross may have something to say about that though, as the top two 180 hitters in the tournament will both be playing free of pressure as very much the underdogs against their big-name opponents.
Legendary 57-year-old Taylor, though, is keen to insist there's no pressure on him in his World Championship swansong as he takes on Lewis - who will be dangerous and, crucially, well rested after his afternoon whitewash of Darren Webster.
"I'm enjoying it," said Taylor. "I think the pressure's off me and on the other players.
"Jamie is a lovely lad. He's in the practice room and you wouldn't even know he was there, he's like a little silent assassin.
"He's a cracking little player and I've got every admiration for that lad, and his family. They're all nice people. This is life changing for Jamie now."
Lewis only secured a spot at Alexandra Palace after Dimitri Van den Bergh became World Youth Champion to open up an extra space in the PDPA Qualifier, and he now finds himself playing a legend of the game for a place in the final.
Having hit 39 maximums so far in the tournament, Lewis' scoring will always give him chances if he finds his game, and he fully believes he can match anyone when in full flow.
"I still think there's room for improvement," said Lewis. "But I know if I get into the right flow I can play as good as anybody.
"I came into this hoping to have a good run but to make the semis is a dream come true.
"If I can just go up there and play my own game and you never know."
Van Gerwen did not find his best form in his narrow last eight win over Raymond van Barneveld, and he knows that he may not be so lucky against Cross in their repeat of the European Championship final.
"Rob Cross is a pehnomenal player, what he did this year is fantastic, but still he's never beaten me yet on television," said Van Gerwen.
"I hope I can keep up my good performance because he's a fabulous player and what he's done this year is phenomenal.
"I know I need to raise my game and I'm sure I will."
Cross has been the big story of this PDC season - he first appeared on the PDC ProTour back in February but has claimed almost £300,000 in prize money since, including four tournament wins, and will be in the world's top ten after the World Championship.
The 27-year-old from Hastings maintains he has the game to bother anyone, even Van Gerwen, but will need to avoid lapses such as the one that allowed Van den Bergh to almost come back from the dead to win their quarter-final.
"It doesn't matter who I play, if I play my game the way I usually do, then I've got a chance," said Cross.
"I don't know what happened against Dimitri, I felt like I was a spectator at times when he was winning those sets in the middle.
"But you've got to forget the last one and move on to the next one, maybe you need a match like that to take something from it.
"But I know that I need to improve, I can't switch off like that and expect to get away with it so I'll improve for the semi-final."
William Hill World Darts Championship
Saturday December 30 (7.30pm)
Semi-Finals
Jamie Lewis v Phil Taylor
Michael van Gerwen v Rob Cross
Best of 11 sets
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TICKETS
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WATCH LIVE
The William Hill World Darts Championship will be broadcast live worldwide through the following broadcast partners:
PDCTV-HD - PDC Website for Rest of the World Subscribers
Sky Sports - UK & Ireland – dedicated “Sky Sports Darts” channel
RTL7 - Netherlands
Sport1 - Germany
DAZN - Germany, Austria, Switzerland Japan, Canada
Fox Sports - Australia
Sky - New Zealand
Nova - Czech Republic
Viasat - Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Bulgaria, Baltic States
Pragosport - Hungary
OSN - Middle East & North Africa
Kwese - South Africa & Sub-Saharan Africa
Eleven Sports - Belgium
BBC America - North America (excluding Canada)
Fox - Italy, Greece, Turkey, Malta, Israel
TVP - Poland
CCTV - China
RTL - Croatia (Dec 28 onwards)
Eurosport - France, Romania, Spain
Eurosport Player - Andorra, Estonia, France & Monaco, Georgie, Israel, Latvia, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Turkey & CIS (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan)
Facebook Live via OfficialPDC page - for Caribbean & South America
LISTEN LIVE
Commentary of the remainder of the William Hill World Darts Championship will be broadcast live on talkSPORT and talkSPORT2 - click here for further details.