By Elliott West
“This is really unbelievable”.
Ted Lowe
Introduction
How time flies! The year was 1985 and with only four television channels in the United Kingdom, snooker became as popular as sliced bread. The year that British Telecom phased out red phone boxes and the world of pop music gathered for Live Aid. In the world of snooker, Steve Davis was the man of the moment, a snooker high-speed train that swept up all the trophies in his path. So it seemed almost inevitable that Steve’s name would be engraved on the trophy. What Davis wasn’t prepared for was the tenacity of his opponent in the final. Dennis Taylor had already reached one world championship final, losing to Terry Griffiths 16-24 in 1979 and so his knives were already sharpened to claim the title. Sports history has proven that you should never rule out an underdog and especially one that has a bit between his teeth.
All Eyes Watching
This final will go down in history as one of the classic sporting moments, probably one of the most replayed pieces of videotape. Watched by a staggering 18.5 million viewers, this was a moment that people who saw it, remembered where they were. A Sunday night conclusion that was stretched into the wee hours of Sunday morning. A moment that Dennis Taylor had been dreaming of for 13 years. This concluding session was the culmination of two extraordinary days of match play, a drama played out in a fitting place, the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
Despite losing the first eight frames of the match, the Ulsterman with the oversized glasses designed by his friend Jack Karnehm would be the catalyst that gripped the nation and caused millions to press the BBC2 button on the front of their television. This certainly wasn’t the easiest match to win and was strewn with errors by both players but what shone through were the killer breaks when they happened. Davis was relentless but Taylor knew that if he tried hard enough, he could get under his opponent’s skin and pull his game out of the fire. With his mother on his mind, looked up to the snooker gods and prayed for good fortune and it worked. A deluge of breaks would rain on Davis’ parade and take the culmination of the match not only to deciding frame but the deciding ball, the crucial black. There could only be one winner, a toss-of-a-coin moment that brought the true meanings of agony, courage and tension in full-blown technicolour.
The Defining Moment
It was an agonising moment to watch, as an unseen magnetic force prevented the black ball from entering one of the six pockets, culminating in the much-replayed missed cutback by Steve Davis that he would have probably potted if his legs had not been trembling faster than a jelly on a plate. In the end, Dennis was left with an attempt on the black that he could have normally potted in his sleep but these were not normal times. As he went down on the shot, it was as if all the oxygen in the theatre had suddenly been inhaled. Not even a pin being dropped would have broken that ultimate silence that was only broken when the black passed the jaws and sunk into its depths.
The applause was deafening and it was as if the audience sprung to their feet in unison. Davis looked shell-shocked in his chair as the jubilant Northern Irishman raised his cue to the Crucible sky and then tapping it on the floor to seal his victory. Pocketing the cheque and placing the bottle of champagne on the table, he kissed the silver lady on the top of the trophy and then held the trophy above his head. He was at last World Champion and he was bathing in his glory. Steve Davis would go on to lose the 1986 final to Joe Johnson 12-18 but then regained the title in 1987 after he beat Johnson 18-14. A title that he would end up winning six times.