World Snooker Championship Final-1985 and Rematch 2010
World Championship Final-1985
26 years ago, at The Crucible theatre, Sheffield, in the final of 1985 World Snooker Championship history was made between Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis, the match which was voted as the 9th greatest sporting moment of all time in 2002 by channel
4 poll. The match drew a record audience of 18.5 million people that night. It is also known as the Black Ball Finish.
It was a best-of-thirty-five where Davis and Taylor had a nail-biting finish in the last deciding frame, which went long for 68 minutes, on the black ball. In the first session Davis, who was also the defending champion, outplayed Taylor completely leading
by a score 7-0. The match was extended to 8-0 later on when Taylor bounced back by winning straight frames and made the scores 9-7. He then made 11-11. The players traded frames from there until Davis, again, went ahead by 15-17 and needed one more frame to
win but Taylor again clawed his way back by knotting the frame-score at 17-17 and the match went into the final deciding frame.
The last frame consisted of a lot of safety shots and went on for 68 minutes. Both players had gone completely into pressure and were not able to pot easy balls. Breathing exercises and sitting long in their chairs, talking, was shown many times by the cameramen.
The commentator Ted Lowe was sounding in even more pressure while commenting on them.
The match went on the color balls where Davis had a lead of 13 points when Taylor also gave him an easy yellow ball which he potted from the rest went on the green and snooker Taylor unintentionally. Taylor broke it but Davis fluked it in the next shot.
Steve now needed just a brown when after exchanging some safety shots Taylor potted all three brown, blue and pink in a row. He also tried the black’s double but it didn’t go in.
Again a few safety shots were played on the last black by both players who took a lot of time playing every single shot. Both players got fair enough chances to pot the black but they kept missing simple shot as they were not able to deal with the pressure.
However Taylor potted it when Davis missed a simple cut leaving him on a straight black.
The Re-match in 2010
In the celebration of this great event, which occurred 25 years ago, a one frame re-match between the two players was held at the same place, The Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, where the scores were made 17-17 once again.
When Taylor was called upon by the announcer he had pretty large glasses on his face and on the other side Davis after receiving a huge round of applause came with pretty long hair on his head. They had made this getup to show that the things for them have
not changed even after 25 years.
Commentators Taylor and Thorne could hardly comment, as during the whole match Davis and Taylor made the crowd laugh, relating their each shot to the one they had played 25 years back. At the end they held the black ball in their hands and started executing
all the shots they had missed.
The crowd’s and the comments from the players were note worthy. However, when they were asked in the start about the 85’s final, Taylor said that it was not me but snooker, itself, was the winner that night.
Although it was all fun but the positive spirit of both players for the game and the way they made crowd laugh that night. The re-match also made its place and is remembered will be remembered for a long time.
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