1985 World Snooker Championship final
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The 1985 World Snooker Championship final was played on the weekend of 27-28 April 1985 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was contested between defending world champion Steve Davis and Northern Irishman Dennis Taylor, appearing in his second final. Taylor produced a determined comeback to win the match on the final ball of the deciding frame, sealing his first and only World title. The result was a major shock, as Davis was the heavy favourite having won three of the last four World Championships. The final frame was one of the most exciting ever seen on TV and Taylor's comeback was one of the most notable in the history of sport.
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 in the early hours of a Monday morning was watched by 18.5 million people in Britain,[1] which remains a record for BBC2. This was a record post-midnight audience for any channel in Britain and, at the time, the record audience for any sporting event in the country.[2] 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 8-0. However, a brave fightback saw Taylor 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 but Taylor clawed his way back to level at 17-17 and force a deciding frame.
[edit] The black-ball finish
The 35th and 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.
With the score at 44-62, Taylor had to pot the last four balls worth 22 points if he was to win. He stayed in contention by potting a very difficult brown from long range, followed by a tricky blue and pink. This meant that, for the first time, the title would be decided on the very last ball, the black. Taylor tried to double it into the left middle pocket; he missed but the ball rebounded to a safe position at the top of the table. Davis then played an excellent safety shot, putting the black near the middle of the baulk (bottom) cushion and leaving the cue ball near the right-hand cushion, a little above the corner 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 shot of his life", as commentator Jim Meadowcroft described it). Taylor thought, in his disappointment, that he had left Davis a moderately easy cut on the black into the top pocket from fairly close range. However, that pot was at a thinner angle than Taylor had anticipated as he tried to judge where the balls would finish up.
To everyone's surprise, Davis overcut the black (albeit into a blind pocket), meaning that Taylor had a fairly straightforward half-ball pot on the black into the same pocket from mid-distance. This time the Ulsterman, almost stretching a fraction to avoid having to use the rest, made no mistake and sank the black ball on this his fourth shot. As the audience erupted, one of snooker's greatest-ever comebacks was complete 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 World Championship history. Northern Ireland celebrated his victory with equal pleasure.
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 ("It was all there in black in white", he says), and admitting that he will probably be remembered more 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.
Polls indicate that the black-ball finish remains one of British sport's golden moments.[3]
