Forty years have passed, but Dennis Taylor still remembers it every day.
“I was in the commentary booth today and there were probably three people who looked and raised an imaginary sign over their heads,” says the 76-year-old, relaxing with a glass of Coca-Cola after his afternoon of work at the Masters.
'Even to their day, they always do. They will raise their hand, turn their glasses upside down to take a photo, or wave their finger. You never get tired of it.
One man who would have every right to be fed up with this is Steve Davis, who joins his old rival and colleague backstage at Alexandra Palace fresh from his stint in the BBC studio.
The Nugget burst into tears that famous night at the Crucible in April 1985, when Taylor clinched his first World Championship title on the final black play after a decisive 68-minute frame that ended at 12:23 a.m. and shocked the nation. .
“At some point in my life, I should be allowed to forget that I missed that black,” laughs the 67-year-old, playfully strangling Taylor as the Northern Irishman replicates his iconic over-the-head taco celebration for the purpose of Photos from Mail Sport.
Snooker legends Steve Davis (left) and Dennis Taylor (right) teamed up to relive their 1985 Crucible final.
Dennis won his first and only world championship when he beat Davis 40 years ago.
18 million viewers tuned in to watch Dennis best Davis in the black
“If I hadn't won another World Championship after that, it might have been a different story, maybe I would have turned down all the interviews related to it.
'But over the years, we have done many exhibitions, we have talked about it and we realized that it was something to laugh about. We have both accepted what we experienced in that final and it has been a joy. We've come together because we know how much fun we can have entertaining others.'
In fact, Taylor and Davis will entertain snooker fans across the country together this year, touring theaters with a show to commemorate the 40th anniversary of their thrilling finale, in which they will recreate the decisive draw.
'It'll be so much fun, especially since I get to clean the black every night!' smiles Taylor ahead of tonight's opening show at Runcorn. 'I love working with Steve. It's a lot of fun.'
At which point, Davis deadpans, adding, “The 50th birthday celebration will have to be held in a nursing home.” We don't know which one yet, it depends on Dennis' children and how kind he was to them. But we'll keep our fingers crossed that we get it and then maybe we can take a tour of the residence.'
The Black Ball final was the zenith of billiards. A record after-midnight television audience of 18.5 million tuned in to BBC Two to watch what is not only considered the greatest snooker match in history, but also one of the most memorable sporting moments of all time.
“No one imagined that 40 years later we would still be talking about it,” Taylor says. “Especially because at one point the BBC, the sponsors, everyone thought it was going to be the worst final ever.”
That's because Davis, the dominant world number one looking to win his third consecutive world title and fourth overall, took an 8-0 lead. However, a missed green in the ninth frame allowed Taylor to come back, a shot Davis says was the turning point.
The Nugget (right) burst into tears that famous night at the Crucible in April 1985.
“If you tried to go back in time and say, 'What shot would you play again?' it wouldn't necessarily be the last black,” Davis says. “I'd like to know what would happen in an alternate universe if I just hit a safety shot on that green.”
Taylor was 11th and the big loser heading into the final. A popular figure on the circuit, he was runner-up in the Crucible in 1979, but was best known for his inverted glasses, specially designed to correct his astigmatism.
That season, however, Taylor was inspired by the memory of her late mother Annie, who died of a heart attack at age 62, six months before the Crucible.
“I was devastated, I wasn't interested in pool, but the family told me, 'Go back and play for your mother,'” Taylor says. 'That's what I did and I took it to the World Championships. “When you're sitting there and watching Steve play, especially when you're 8-0 behind, it helps me to think about her.”
Taylor was often seen murmuring to his mother while sitting in his chair and won the final six frames on the first day of the finals to cut Davis' lead to 9-7. “That night I had a couple of glasses of champagne to help me sleep better,” he recalls. “But I was always going to sleep better than Steve because he must have had nightmares after losing his 8-0 lead.”
The next day, Taylor tied for the first time at 11-11, but was never able to get ahead of Davis, who had a 13-11 lead entering the afternoon session.
Davis also led 15-12 and 17-15, at which point tournament officials wrote his name on the winner's check for £60,000. Taylor, however, managed to claw back from 17-17 to take the best-of-35 final to a decider, before which he took a “bathroom break.”
“My friend Trevor East had a brandy waiting for me in the dressing room, which I thought would probably help me a little in the crunch,” Taylor says. I don't even like brandy!
That final frame was tortuous, not only for the mentally exhausted players, but also for the
The nervous Crucible crowd and the millions watching from the edge of their sofas at home. “The tension had taken a toll on both of us in that setting,” Davis admits.
Dennis says fans still come up to him and wave their fingers to repeat his celebration.
“Neither of us could collect too many balls.”
Taylor says: 'Some of the safety shots were brilliant, but when we got the chance we were shaking all over. It was meant to go to colours.'
The highest break in the frame came from Davis, a measly 25, and he was crawling to glory with a 62-44 lead with only the last four flushes remaining. But Taylor then hit a long brown – “one of the best shots of my career” – before sinking the blue and pink to leave him only needing the black for the title.
Before attempting to fold the black one into the middle pocket, Taylor reached out to kiss the Greek shepherdess figure on top of the trophy. “I don't know why I did that,” he admits. “I think he was saying, 'I'm going to beat you with this shot or I'm going to lose you.'”
He missed the double and four more throws were made (two deep ones by Davis, two more misses by Taylor) before Davis had a chance to cut the black in the top pocket.
“Under pressure, the shot is hard, so my brain was saying, 'Don't hit it hard,' and I hit it too thin,” says Davis, who put his hand to his head and walked away white as a ghost.
It gave Taylor an easier chance to put the black in the same pocket, and he overcame his nerves to sink it and seal an 18-17 victory, prompting those wild celebrations when he threw his cue over his head.
“It was just a reaction,” he says. 'You don't know how you're going to react. You spent 13 years trying to become world champion and suddenly you do it against, at the time, the best player who had ever learned a cue.
“You couldn't imagine it would end at the last dance after 17 days at the Crucible. You couldn't have written a script like that. They wouldn't believe it.'
Taylor also memorably shook his finger at his friend East, the head of ITV Sport, telling him: “I told you I would,” as a distraught Davis looked on in horror, before giving two one-word responses in his post. -Match interview with David Vine.
“I remember the emotion of the moment, returning to the locker room and bursting into tears,” he says. 'You are inconsolable for that moment.
“I also remember being absolutely gutted that night and headbutting a journalist, which was really funny! It was just a joke, but he didn't know about the joking part. He took off his glasses ready to fight, but I was so drunk it wouldn't have been a fair fight!
“The way I felt in the months after was probably the worst I've ever felt, thinking about it, repeating shots. I remember taking a bath and I started remembering the injections and before I knew it, the bath water had gone cold .'
On the contrary, Taylor was having the time of her life. 'I just partied for about 18 months!' he says. “Everywhere I went, it was crazy.”
That included his hometown of Coalisland, where he was paraded through the streets on the back of a Land Rover.
'It was like the Pope-mobile!' Taylor smiles. 'It was incredible to have my small town filled with so many people of all denominations. The problems were quite serious at that time, but they all came from everywhere.
Ireland to celebrate with me. And they made me mayor for a day! A couple of weeks later I was back in Northern Ireland for an exhibition. This guy had a baby in his arms and said, “What's Dennis Taylor doing?” And this baby raised his hands! I couldn't believe it.
'When I got knocked out of the World Championships the following year, I went to Blackburn for an exhibition and this guy said to me: “When you put the black in last year, I collapsed with a heart attack!” Fortunately he had recovered.”
Even those who weren't even alive in 1985 now have images of that final burned into their brains, something Taylor discovered some 30 years later when he went to India to film a travel documentary.
“I thought no one would know me there,” he says. “But I got into a tuk-tuk and the driver, who was about 22, pretended to be commentator Ted Lowe.” More recently, Taylor posed as Davis when he went to see his friend DJ in York.
'He didn't know I was coming and I showed up in a Steve Davis mask!' he reveals. Davis' second coming as a DJ saw him play Glastonbury and support Blur at Wembley. But strangers still stop him on the street to talk about the final he lost 40 years ago, despite winning six world titles in total.
Davis may not have become as popular if he had beaten Taylor that night. The winning machine of the 1980s was seen as boring and robotic, but in defeat the nation saw its human side and sympathized with the man later given the ironic nickname Interesting in the satirical television puppet show Spitting Image.
“I felt proud to be on that show, it was like the ultimate award,” adds Davis. 'We know that gamers today are probably wondering, “Why are we still talking about this incident that happened in another generation?” But they don't know what it was like to be known back then as a pool player. We felt like pop stars. We had to pinch ourselves because we were minor superstars based simply on a game of hitting balls into a hole with a stick.'