Ten years to the week since Toby Roland-Jones claimed a hat-trick at Lord's to seal the 2016 County Championship, Middlesex's oldest stager was once again front and centre of his county's bid for silverware.
Roland-Jones' exceptional ten-over spell at the top of Leicestershire's run-chase delivered final figures of 3 for 27, to set his side up for a 31-run win that may not have washed all the club's off-field troubles away, but at least demonstrated the fighting spirit that still resides in the playing staff.
"Obviously it means a huge amount," Roland-Jones told Sky Sports. "Days like this, and feeding off the crowd … it's been a long time for me since I played with a bit of atmosphere like that behind me. For me, it brings the best out of me on most occasions.
"We've played some amazing cricket throughout the tournament. I think today was a perfect picture of what we've done each game. At times we looked down and out, at times we were in the ascendancy, but I think all the time we kept finding ways of taking wickets.
"It's a lot harder to field 30 overs after doing that, for sure," Roland-Jones added, after bowling all ten of his overs off the reel. "But it's something that I've done occasionally through the tournament. It just feels like my skills are best utilized closer to the new ball, and we've got guys, as you saw at the end there, who are much better skilled and much better placed to finish the game off. And yeah, it seemed to work out perfectly today."
At the age of 38, Roland-Jones may not be old enough to remember Middlesex's last List A triumph, at Lord's way back in September 1990. But none of his team-mates had even been born when Mike Gatting's men beat Derbyshire in that season's Refuge Assurance Cup final. And in fact, with five squad members under 20 - including his new-ball partner Naavya Sharma - few would have remembered that Championship win over Yorkshire with much clarity either.
"Navi Sharma there bowled outstandingly well," Roland-Jones added, after Sharma had claimed the title-winning wicket of Tom Scriven to finish with 3 for 37, making him the leading wicket-taker in this year's competition with 20. "Such an exciting talent. It keeps me as young as is possible right now, and hopefully it'll be a great time for them and we can enjoy some of that. I hope that wasn't my final spell … fingers crossed I can keep going."
Middlesex's win would not have been possible, however, had it not been for Ryan Higgins' fighting century in their first-innings total of 231. The bulk of his runs were made in a sixth-wicket stand of 137 with Harry Duke, after Middlesex had slumped to 71 for 5. And though Nick Kelly responded in kind for Leicestershire with a hundred of his own, the lack of similar support proved telling in the final analysis.
"It's got to be up there," Higgins said at the post-match presentations. "Obviously, doing that in a final means so much. I get ahead of myself quite a lot. So luckily, I had Dukey there just to keep me down a bit and make sure I just kept taking it deep. We probably faltered a little bit at the end - we were looking at 250, 260 - but it worked out well."
The victory comes after another tough year for Middlesex, whose long-term future remains shrouded in doubt following a spate of resignations at senior management level, with the chief executive, chairman and director of cricket all departing in a matter of months. The team missed out on a return to the top flight of the Championship, but for Ben Geddes, the white-ball captain, the pride of a trophy-winning campaign was vindication enough.
"We're a resilient bunch, you know," he said at the post-match presentation. "As players, we just try and leave it away from our thoughts and just get on with the job. We go out there and put our best foot forward for the match, and try and leave all the noise on the sidelines."