1985 World Snooker Championship final

The 1985 World Snooker Championship final, commonly known as the black ball final, was a snooker match played on the weekend of 27/28 April 1985 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was contested between defending World Champion Steve Davis and Northern Irishman Dennis Taylor, appearing in his second final. Taylor produced a determined comeback to win the match on the final ball of the final frame, sealing his only world title. The result was a major shock, as Davis was the heavy favourite, having won three of the previous four world championships.

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 in the early hours of a Monday morning was watched by 18.5 million people in the United Kingdom, which remains a record for BBC2, and also remains a record post-midnight audience for any channel in the United Kingdom. The total match time of 14 hours 50 minutes is the longest for a best-of-35-frame match.

Davis, who had been ranked the world number one for two years, and would remain in that position for another five, was strong favourite going into the event. The pair met in the semi-finals twelve months before with Davis coming through a convincing winner by 16 frames to 9. Taylor started the final strongly with a fifty plus break but Davis proved too strong by whitewashing Taylor in the first session and won the first frame of the second session to lead 8–0, Taylor won the ninth frame on the pink after Davis attempted and missed a fine cut on the green. This frame appeared to be the turning point of the match. Davis, looking tired and jaded allowed Taylor to win six of the next seven frames, producing quality break building including the highest break of the final of 98 to trail only 7–9 overnight.

Going into the final session, Davis had won two of the first three frames to lead 11–8, before Taylor levelled the match at 11–11. Davis won the next two frames on the final black to lead 13–11, before Taylor drew level at 15–15. Errors were creeping in Davis's game and he looked the more nervous of the two players but he managed to win the next two frames to lead 17–15 again, before Taylor won a hotly contested 33rd frame followed by a fifty plus break in frame 34 to draw level at 17–17 and forced the deciding frame.

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