1985 World Snooker Championship final
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The 1985 World Snooker Championship final is often cited as the most exciting game of snooker ever seen. It was played on the weekend of 27-28 April 1985 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England between Northern Irishman Dennis Taylor, appearing in his second final and Steve Davis, the then defending world champion, who had also won three of the previous four world championships titles.
The event was in the eighth year of the BBC's coverage of the event, and snooker was reaching the zenith of its popularity. The climax of the final was watched by 18.5 million people, which remains a record for BBC2, the channel showing the event, a record post-midnight audience for any channel in Britain and, at the time, the record audience for any sporting event in the country. The total match time of 14 hours 50 minutes was the longest ever recorded for a 35-frame match.
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[edit] The early frames
Davis, who had been ranked the world number one for four years, and would remain in that position for another four, was strong favourite going into the event. He whitewashed Taylor in the first session, and after the first frame of the second was leading 8 frames to 0. However a superb fightback punctuated with fine breaks from Taylor saw him close the gap to only 7-9 at the end of the first day. Going into the final session, he had levelled the match at 11-11. The final instalment, a marathon five-hour effort, saw Davis lead 17-15 in the first to 18 frames final. Taylor clawed his way back to level at 17-17.
[edit] The black ball finish
The final frame, a very tense and nervous affair, lasted 68 minutes - three times as long as a typical frame between professional players and one of the longest in ranking-event history.
At 44-62 down, Taylor stayed alive by potting an incredible brown, followed by a tricky blue and pink, meaning that, for the first time, the title would be decided on the very last ball, the black. Taylor tried a double into the left middle pocket, which rebounded to safety at the top of the table. Davis then played an excellent safety shot, putting the black near the middle of the into baulk cushion and leaving the cue ball near the right-hand cushion a little above the black pocket. Taylor then half-attempted to double the black into the top-left corner pocket but missed, with the black rebounding up and down the table, eventually sneaking past the left middle pocket to a relatively safe position. As the applause died down from a relieved audience, veteran commentator Ted Lowe remarked: "I'm sure Dennis wouldn't mind my saying he chanced his arm, and it's come out lucky". Davis' next attempt went wrong, as a double-kiss left Taylor with a reasonable middle-distance pot to the green corner pocket. However, he snatched at the shot a little and missed the pot ("the biggest pot of his life", as commentator Jim Meadowcroft described it), leaving (as he thought, in his disappointment) Davis a moderately easy cut into the top pocket from fairly close range. However, the pot left for Davis was at a thinner angle than Taylor had anticipated as he tried to judge where the balls would finish up.
Davis, however, overcut the black (into a blind pocket, admittedly) and left Taylor with a fairly straightforward half-ball black into the same pocket from mid-distance. This time the popular Ulsterman, almost stretching a fraction to avoid having to use the rest, made no mistake and sunk the black ball on this his fourth shot. As the audience erupted, snooker's arguably greatest-ever comeback was complete. This epic match was over at 12.19 a.m. on a Monday morning (29 April 1985). Much was made of Lowe's understated commentary, simply uttering a bemused "No!" when Davis missed his final shot and a joyful "He's done it!" when Taylor potted the black.
In contrast to an ashen-faced Davis, Taylor's unrestrained joy - kissing the trophy, foot-stamping, finger-wagging and holding his cue aloft whilst hundreds of camera flashes popped around him - has become part of snooker folklore. The celebrations back home in Northern Ireland were scarcely less restrained.
Davis went on to lose the final to Joe Johnson the following year, before winning three in a row to give him six in total. He has since come to terms with the defeat, allowing himself to joke about it and also admitting that he will probably be remembered for the final he didn't win in 1985 than for the six he did. Both players now commentate on BBC's snooker coverage and are often reminded of that match.
No final since has matched the drama of that particular evening. Polls indicate that the final frame remains one of British sport's golden moments.[1]
