1985 World Snooker Championship

The 1985 World Snooker Championship (also known as the 1985 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purpose of sponsorship) was a professional ranking tournament in snooker that took place from 12 to 28 April 1985 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. Organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), the event was the ninth consecutive World Snooker Championship to be held at the Crucible, the first tournament having taken place in 1977. A five-round qualifying event for the championship was held at the Preston Guild Hall from 29 March to 5 April for 87 players, 16 of whom reached the main stage, where they met the 16 invited seeded players. The tournament was broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC, and was sponsored by the Embassy cigarette company. The total prize fund for the event was £250,000, the highest prize pool for any snooker tournament to that date. The winner received £60,000, which was the highest amount ever received by the winner of a snooker event at that time.

The defending champion was Englishman Steve Davis, who had previously won the World Championship three times. He met Northern Irishman Dennis Taylor in the final which was a best-of-35-frames match. Davis took an early 9–1 lead, but Taylor battled back into the match and drew level at 17–17, forcing a deciding frame. The 35th frame was contested over the final black ball, with the player able to pot the ball winning the world title. After Taylor missed three attempts to pot the black, Davis missed his only attempt to leave Taylor a relatively simple pot to win his sole World Championship. The match, often referred to as the "black ball final", is commonly considered to be the best-known match in the history of snooker and a reason for the surge in the sport's popularity in the 1980s and 1990s.

Canadian Bill Werbeniuk scored the championship's highest break, a 143, in his first-round match. There were 14 century breaks compiled during the championship, with ten more in qualifying matches. This was the first professional snooker championship to introduce a ban on performance-enhancing substances, with all players in the main stage having to undertake drug tests. The final between Davis and Taylor holds the record for the most-viewed broadcast in the United Kingdom of a programme shown after midnight, with a peak of 18.5 million viewers for the match's final frame, breaking the existing records for the most-viewed sporting event and BBC2 programme.

The World Snooker Championship is a professional tournament and the official world championship of the game of snooker. Developed in the late 19th century by British Army soldiers stationed in India, snooker was popular in the United Kingdom before being introduced to Europe and the Commonwealth. The sport is now played worldwide, especially in East and Southeast Asian nations such as China, Hong Kong and Thailand.

The World Championship is organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA). It features 32 professional players competing in one-on-one single-elimination matches, played over several frames. The players are selected to take part using a combination of the world snooker rankings and a pre-tournament qualification round. The first World Championship, in 1927, was won by Joe Davis in a final at Camkin's Hall in Birmingham, England. Since 1977, the tournament has been held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. The 1984 championship was won by England's Steve Davis, who defeated fellow countryman Jimmy White 18–16 in the final; this was Davis's third world championship win, following his victories in 1981 and 1983. The winner of the 1985 championship received a prize of £60,000 from a total of £250,000, the highest first prize amount for a snooker event to that date.

The tournament was the first snooker event to feature drug tests for the participants, as mandated by the WPBSA on 9 April 1985; the tests were proposed by WPBSA board member Barry Hearn. The event was broadcast by the BBC in the United Kingdom, with over 90 hours of coverage. The estimated cost for the fortnight's broadcast was reportedly £3 million. The championship was sponsored by the Embassy cigarette company.

The championship was held from 12 to 28 April 1985 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England, the ninth consecutive World Championship to be held at the venue. It was the last ranking event of the 1984–85 snooker season. There were 103 entrants from the World Snooker Tour, with 32 participants in the competition's main draw. A five-round knockout qualifying competition with 87 players, held at Preston Guild Hall between 29 March and 5 April, produced the 16 qualifying players who progressed into the main draw to play the top 16 seeds. The draw for the tournament was made at the Savoy Hotel in London on 16 January 1985.

The top 16 players in the latest world rankings automatically qualified for the main draw as seeded players. As defending champion, Steve Davis was seeded first for the event; the remaining 15 seeds were allocated based on world rankings for the 1984–85 season. Matches in the first round of the main draw were played as best-of-19-frames. The number of frames needed to win a match increased to 13 in the second round and quarter-finals, and 16 in the semi-finals; the final match was played as best-of-35-frames.