1985 World Snooker Championship final
Encyclopedia
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| World Champion (1981, 1983, 1984) |
Runner-up (1979) |
| 27 years old | 36 years old |
| World Ranking: 1 | World Ranking: 11 |
The 1985 World Snooker Championship final, commonly known as the black ball final, was played on the weekend of 27/28 April 1985 at the Crucible Theatre
Crucible Theatre
The Crucible Theatre is a theatre built in 1971 and located in the city centre of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. As well as theatrical performances, it is home to the most important event in professional snooker, the World Snooker Championship....
in Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It was contested between defending World Champion Steve Davis
Steve Davis
Steve Davis, OBE is an English professional snooker player. He has won more professional titles in the sport than any other player, including six World Championships during the 1980s, when he was the world number one for seven years and became the sport's first millionaire...
and Northern Irishman Dennis Taylor
Dennis Taylor
Dennis Taylor is a retired snooker player, and current BBC snooker commentator. Winner of two ranking events, he is best known for winning the 1985 World Championship, beating World number one Steve Davis on the final black in one of the sport's most memorable finals...
, appearing in his second final. Taylor produced a determined comeback to win the match on the final ball of the final frame, sealing his only world title. The result was a major shock, as Davis was the heavy favourite, having won three of the previous 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
Sport
A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...
.
The event was in the eighth year of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
'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 the United Kingdom, which remains a record for BBC2
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
, and also remains a record post-midnight audience for any channel in the United Kingdom. The total match time of 14 hours 50 minutes was the longest ever recorded for a best of 35 frame match.
Road to final
| Round | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opponent | Result | Opponent | Result | |
 Neal FouldsNeal Foulds Neal Foulds is a former English professional snooker player and is now a commentator on the sport.-Career:Foulds quickly climbed the rankings after turning professional in 1983, reaching no. 3 within four years. He won his first ranking tournament in 1986, the BCE International, beating Cliff... |
10–8 | First round |  Silvino FranciscoSilvino Francisco Silvino Francisco is a retired South African professional snooker player.Francisco comes from a snooker-playing family. His brother Mannie and nephew Peter both played at a high level, Mannie having been a runner-up in the World Amateur Billiards Championship on several occasions, and Peter having... |
10–2 |
| David Taylor David Taylor (snooker player) David Taylor is a semi-retired English professional snooker player. He won the World and English Amateur Championships in 1968, before the success of those wins encouraged him to turn professional. Although an excellent player, Taylor never quite reached the very top of the game... |
13–4 | Second round |  Eddie CharltonEddie Charlton Edward Francis Charlton AM was an Australian professional snooker and English billiards player. He remains the only player to have been world championship runner-up in both snooker and billiards without winning either title... |
13–6 |
 Cliff ThorburnCliff Thorburn Clifford Charles Devlin Thorburn CM, known as Cliff Thorburn is a retired professional Canadian snooker player... |
13–5 | Quarter-finals |  Terry GriffithsTerry Griffiths Terrence "Terry" Griffiths OBE is a retired Welsh snooker player and current snooker coach and pundit. He won the World Championship in 1979 at the first attempt, and reached the 1988 final. He also won the Masters in 1980 and the UK Championship in 1982, making him one of seven players to have... |
13–6 |
| Ray Reardon Ray Reardon Ray Reardon, MBE is a retired Welsh snooker player. He dominated the sport in the 1970s, winning six World Championships in that decade... |
16–5 | Semi-finals | Tony Knowles Tony Knowles (snooker player) Anthony Knowles is an English professional snooker player. He was a three times semi-finalist in the World Professional Snooker Championship in the 1980s.-Career:... |
16–5 |
The early frames
Davis, who had been ranked the world number one for two years, and would remain in that position for another five, was strong favourite going into the event. He whitewashed Taylor in the first session and won the first of the second session to lead 8–0, before Taylor opened his account. Davis then won frame 10 to lead 9–1, only to see Taylor reel off six in a row to trail only 7–9 overnight. Going into the final session, he had levelled the match at 11–11. Davis won the next two frames on the final black to lead 13–11 and led again 17–15, before Taylor draw level at 17–17 and forced a deciding frame.The black-ball finish
The 35th and final frame lasted 68 minutes. In the last and deciding frame Davis led 62–44, when with only last four on the table, worth 22 points. Taylor 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 the audience, veteran commentator Ted LoweTed Lowe
Edwin Charles Ernest Lowe, MBE , known as Ted Lowe, was an English snooker commentator for the BBC. His unmistakably husky, hushed tones earned him the nickname "Whispering Ted".-Life and career:...
remarked, "I'm sure Dennis wouldn't mind my saying he chanced his arm, and it's come out lucky". Davis' next attempt went awry, as a double-kiss left Taylor with a reasonable middle-distance pot to the green corner pocket. However, he snatched somewhat at the shot and missed the pot ("the biggest shot of his life", as commentator Jim Meadowcroft
Jim Meadowcroft
Jim Meadowcroft is a retired English professional snooker player who has latterly been a coach and a commentator on the game....
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 over-cut the black (albeit into a blind pocket), leaving Taylor a fairly straightforward half-ball pot on the black into the same pocket from mid-distance. This time the Ulsterman, 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, 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 surprised "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, cue-thumping, finger-wagging, and holding his cue aloft whilst hundreds of camera flashes popped around him – has become part of World Championship history. Such was the extraordinary nature of Taylor's comeback that, uniquely, at no stage of the entire final was he ahead of Davis until he potted the black that won him the championship.
Legacy
Davis went on to lose the following year's final to Joe JohnsonJoe Johnson (snooker player)
Joe Johnson is an English former professional snooker player. He is best known as the surprise winner of the 1986 World Championship.- Career :...
, 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 happened in black and white", he said at the time), 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. The finish was voted the ninth greatest sporting moment of all time in a 2002 Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
poll.
During the 2010 World Championship, Taylor and Davis 'recreated' the final frame of the 1985 final. The recreation, which was done in a distinctly irreverent manner, was noticeable for the fact that all but one of their attempts to recreate missed shots on black failed (i.e. the black was potted on each occasion) and Taylor's attempt to recreate the frame-winning ball also went wrong. BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
aired a one hour documentary on the final, Davis v Taylor: The '85 Black Ball Final presented by Colin Murray
Colin Murray
Colin Murray is a Northern Irish sports and music radio and television presenter. He is the current host of the BBC Television show Match of the Day 2 on BBC Two, and the BBC Radio 5 Live shows 5 Live Sport and Fighting Talk, as well as a show on BBC Radio Ulster. He has previously hosted regular...
, after the conclusion of the coverage of the 2010 Final.