1985 World Snooker Championship final

The 1985 World Snooker Championship final, also known as the black-ball final, was played on the weekend of 27–28 April 1985 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. The final of the 1985 World Snooker Championship was between defending world champion Steve Davis and 1979 runner-up Dennis Taylor. It was Davis's fourth appearance in a final and Taylor's second. The best-of-35-frame match was split into four sessions. Davis won every frame in the first session to lead 7–0 and extended his lead to 9–1 in the second session but led 9–7 overnight and 13–11 after the third sessions. Until the match was over, Taylor was never ahead in frames but had tied the contest three times at 11–11, 15–15 and 17–17. The deciding frame culminated in a number of shots on the final black ball. After both players had failed to pot it several times, Taylor potted the black to win his only world championship. Media outlets reported this as a major shock: Davis had been widely predicted to win the match, having lifted three of the previous four world championship titles.

The final took place during the eighth year of the BBC's daily coverage of the championship and reached a climax in the early hours of Monday 29 April. It was viewed by 18.5 million people in the United Kingdom, which as of 2024^[update] remains a record viewing figure for BBC2, and as of 2024^[update] is still the record for a post-midnight audience for any British television channel. The total match time of 14 hours and 50 minutes is the longest ever recorded for a best-of-35-frames match. It is the only final at this venue to contain no century breaks.

The final is one of the most famous matches in snooker history and part of the reason for the surge in the sport's popularity in the 1980s and 1990s. Two hour-long BBC documentaries, When Snooker Ruled the World from 2002 and Davis v Taylor: The '85 Black Ball Final made in 2010, commemorated the event. The final frame was released in full on home video as "The Greatest Snooker Final of All Time". The post-match single-word responses to David Vine from Davis would later be used as a basis for a recurring caricature of him in the television show Spitting Image.

The World Snooker Championship is a professional snooker tournament first held in 1927 and becoming an annual event in 1969. The 1985 World Snooker Championship final was the culmination of the last world ranking event of the 1984–85 snooker season. The tournament featured a 32-participant main draw, with 16 seeded players and 16 players from a pre-tournament qualification competition. Matches at the event were played over a series of frames, the final being the best-of-35 frames over four sessions. The final was broadcast on the BBC for the eighth year in a row, with the winner receiving £60,000 (equivalent to £230,000 in 2023), the highest prize for a snooker event to that date.

Steve Davis, ranked as the world number one, overcame Neal Foulds 10–8 in the opening round in what was Davis's closest match until the final. He then played David Taylor in the second round, holding at least a three-frame lead throughout much of the match, and eventually won 13–4 after winning seven frames out of eight. Davis trailed for the first time at the event in the quarter-finals, as he played Terry Griffiths. Griffiths won the first four frames, but Davis won the next four to tie the match 4–4. With the scores even, Davis won six of the next eight to lead 10–6 after the second session and eventually won 13–6. In the semi-final, Davis required just three of the four scheduled sessions to overcome Ray Reardon 16–5.

Dennis Taylor, ranked 11, led Silvino Francisco 8–1 in the opening session, and won the match 10–2. In the second round, Taylor played Eddie Charlton where he won 13–6. Taylor played Cliff Thorburn in the quarter-finals, in a match full of slow play. He led 10–5 after an over nine-hour second session, but won the first three frames in the final session to win 13–5. In the semi-final Taylor lost the first two frames against Tony Knowles, but won 16 of the next 19 to win 16–5, the same scoreline as Davis.

The final was played on 27–28 April 1985 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. Davis went into the tournament as the defending champion. The two players had met twelve months earlier in the semi-finals of the 1984 World Championship, Davis winning 16–9, having only lost once to Taylor in nine matches. Davis was competing in his fourth world championship final, having reached the final and won in 1981, 1983 and 1984. Taylor was contesting his second final, having lost to Terry Griffiths 16–24 in 1979. Davis had never lost a prior ranking event final.

Taylor started the 1985 final with a break of 50 but lost that frame as Davis gained a firm advantage by whitewashing his opponent in the first session. Davis also won the first frame of the second session to lead 8–0. Taylor won the ninth frame on the pink after Davis missed a pot on the green. Davis lead 9–1 but lost the last six frames of the session, as Taylor produced the highest break of the final, a 98, to trail 7–9 overnight. Davis won two of the first three frames on the second day, to lead 11–8, before Taylor tied the match at 11–11. Davis took both of the next two frames on the black to lead 13–11. Taylor won four of the next six and again drew level at 15–15. Davis won the next two frames to regain the lead at 17–15. Taylor then won a closely fought 33rd frame, followed by a 57 break in frame 34, to level the match at 17–17 and force a deciding frame.