1985 World Snooker Championship

Professional snooker tournament, held April 1985

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 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 , with the player able to 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 , 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. The first World Championship, in 1927, was won by Joe Davis in a final at Camkin's Hall in Birmingham, England. The estimated cost for the fortnight's broadcast was reportedly £3 million. 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. Six former world champions participated in the main tournament at the Crucible: Ray Reardon (1970, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, and 1978), Steve Davis (1981, 1983, and 1984), John Spencer (1969, 1971, and 1977), Alex Higgins (1972 and 1982), Cliff Thorburn (1980) and Terry Griffiths (1979).

The event had a total prize fund of £250,000, an increase of £50,000 in the total prize pool from the previous year, and the winner received £60,000, an increase of £16,000 from the previous year. All qualifying matches were played as best of 19 frames. John Dunning was seeded into the third round of qualifying, where he played his first return match since his heart attack at the 1984 Grand Prix; he lost the match to Wayne Jones, 6–10. Fred Davis, aged 71 and eight time champion between 1948 and 1956, defeated Robert Chaperon 10–9 in the fourth round of qualifying but lost 6–10 to Rex Williams in the fifth. A series of articles in the Daily Star about drug abuse in the championship was based on statements reportedly by Silvino Francisco. Francisco trailed 1–8 after the first session of his first round match against 11th seed Dennis Taylor, At a press conference held afterwards, World Snooker chairman Rex Williams said that there was no evidence of drug use in the sport, and Francisco apologised to Kirk Stevens (the player named in the Daily Star articles), claiming that the statements in the article were a "total lie". After being defeated twice during the season by Eugene Hughes, six time champion and fifth seed Ray Reardon won 10–9 against Hughes on a deciding frame. John Virgo led tenth seed Tony Meo 5–4 after the first session, but won just one frame in the second session to lose 6–10. In a press conference after the match, Virgo said: "I don't think Tony played well enough to beat me. It was the run of the balls that beat me. That's the way it has been for me for six years. I can't explain it. I practise hard. I play well, but sometimes that is not enough. You need a lot of luck in this game and I didn't get any at all." Although fourth seed Kirk Stevens defeated Ray Edmonds 10–8, snooker pundit Clive Everton said that his standard of play was not that of a top four player and Edmonds "made [Stevens] work". In a slow first session, Rex Williams and eighth seed Terry Griffiths played seven (instead of the planned nine) frames; Griffiths led 6–1 after three hours and 38 minutes, Alex Higgins and Terry Griffiths were tied 5–5 after ten frames. Griffiths pulled ahead during the second session, leading 10–6, and won three of the first four frames of the final session to win 13–7. John Parrott led Kirk Stevens 6–2 after the first session and eventually won, 13–6. Ray Reardon and Patsy Fagan were tied after the first session, 4–4, In an all Canadian second round match, Cliff Thorburn defeated Bill Werbeniuk 13–3 with a Two former event finalists, Dennis Taylor and Eddie Charlton, met in the second round; Taylor defeated Charlton, 13–6. Seventh seed Jimmy White overcame Tony Meo, after being tied 10–10, to win 13–11. John Parrott also won the first four frames of his match against Ray Reardon, and led 5–3 after the first session. With one red left on the table, Parrott led by seven points; Reardon Parrott, and won a to win the match with a break of 31. Due to slow play, only six of the eight frames of the opening session between Dennis Taylor and Cliff Thorburn were played. Taylor took a lead of 4–0, before ending the session at 4–2. The session was described as interesting by Clive Everton of The Guardian, however, due to the "high quality of the tactical play." Although Reardon had won his previous matches with strong play, Davis's created opportunities throughout the match. Taylor said that he had seen Knowles get "angry" during the match, however, and that he had "thrown his cue" at a few shots. Although Taylor scored a break of 50 in the first frame of the match, Davis won all seven frames of the opening session to lead 7–0. At the start of the second session, Davis took the eighth frame and was leading in frame nine but missed a on the This error was later considered the turning point of the match,

After potting the final ball, Taylor raised his ; he "waggled" his finger and kissed the winner's trophy. His family and friends had persuaded him to play again in the Grand Prix event, where he won his first professional title by defeating Cliff Thorburn in the final. He was loaned mayoral robes on the day of the parade, and was accompanied by his wife and three children. Media covering the tournament called Steve Davis a "bad loser" for his silence and one word responses to questions from David Vine at a press conference after the event. At the 2010 World Snooker Championship, to celebrate the 25th anniversary, Taylor and Davis replayed the final frame with commentary by John Virgo. Taylor never reached the final again, falling to the "Crucible curse" at the 1986 championship with a first round loss to Mike Hallett.

There were 14 century breaks in the championship. Bill Werbeniuk's 143 against Joe Johnson in the first round was the joint third highest break in the championship's history, tied with Willie Thorne's in 1982. Only Cliff Thorburn's maximum break in 1983 and Doug Mountjoy's 145 in 1981 were higher. Tony Knowles missed the black on a break of 137 that would have scored a 144 in his quarter final with Jimmy White.