To mark the 25th anniversary of their epic World Snooker Championship final Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor will entertain Sheffield’s Crucible crowd with a one frame match. Back in 1985, Dennis Taylor beat Steve Davis 18 frames to 17, the final frame made it a black ball game in what has become one of the classic World Snooker Championship Finals. The match was followed by 18.5 million BBC viewers as the game continued through the evening and well after midnight as Taylor battled for victory against Steve “the nugget” Davis. Having gone 8-0 down early in the match, Taylor had a mountain to climb in the best of 35 frame, so first to 18 frames match. Taylor fought back and narrowed Davis’ lead to 2 frames at 7-9, finally drawing level at 11 all. It was neck at neck with the two players exchanging frames until the 32nd frame when Steve Davis developed a 2 frame lead at 17 frames to 15. Dennis Taylor’s fought back again to level the match at 17 frames a piece and take the match to the final frame. Taylor had the opportunity to take the victory having potted some of the final colours with just the black left to seal the victory. However, he didn’t have an easy shot on the black and played a safety. A tactical match on the black ensued and it took Steve Davis to make a mistake and give Dennis Taylor a shot on the black to clinch the final frame and match.

Viewing figures for the Davis Vs Taylor 1985 World Snooker Championship final achieved a record for a post-midnight audience on BBC television with 18.5 millions viewers as well as a record audience for BBC Two. The exciting, nailbiting black ball finish was also voted as the 9th greated sporting moment of all time by a Channel 4 poll taken in 2002.

Steve Davis Vs Dennis Taylor: 1985 Replay Preview

Due to take place at 12:00pm on the 29th of April, the 1985 World Snooker Championship 25th anniversary match will be held at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield. Steve Davis will be favourite to win the match having qualified for the main draw of the 2010 World Snooker Championship. Dennis Taylor retired as a professional 10 years ago in 2010 and like Steve Davis is involved in the BBC’s commentary. As live snooker is keen to improve it’s appeal to a wider audience this one frame match is perhaps an insight into matches to come as the image of snooker is revitalised. I for one will pleased to see some of the games greats to head-to-head once more to relive past classic matches and events. However, I hope that it is played in the spirit of the occassion and the audience is treated to some banter during the match. As commentators Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor are both known for their sporting personalities, if not for totally different reasons. And it would be very interesting for those personalities to play a big part in the one frame match they play at the crucible on the 29th of April.