1985 World Snooker Championship final
From Freepedia
The 1985 World Snooker Championship final is often cited as the most exciting game of snooker in history. It was played at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield in the United Kingdom between Northern Irishman Dennis Taylor, appearing in his second final and Steve Davis, the then defending World Champion.
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 was 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.
Davis, who had been 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 punctured 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 final. Taylor clawed back to level at 17-17. The final frame, a very tense and nervous affair, lasted 68 minutes - three times as long as a typical frame between professional players, and the second-longest frame in ranking event history.
At 44-62 down, Taylor stayed alive by potting an incredible brown, followed by the blue and pink, meaning that, for the first time, the title would be decided on the very last ball, the black. Each player had several attempts at the black before Taylor was left with a reasonable middle-distance pot to the green pocket. However, he snatched at the shot a little and missed the pot, leaving (as he thought, in his disappointment) Davis a moderately easy cut into the top pocket from close enough range. Incredibly, Davis 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 Irishman, stretching a fraction to avoid having to use the rest, made no mistake and snooker's greatest ever comback was complete. This epic match was over at 12.26 a.m. (00.26) on a Monday morning.
In contrast to an ashed-faced Davis, Taylor's unrestrained joy - foot-stamping, finger-wagging and holding his cue aloft whilst hundreds of camera flashes popped around him - have become part of snooker lore. The celebrations back home in Ireland were scarcely less restrained.
No final has ever come close to matching the drama of that particular evening. It remains one of British sport's golden moments.
