1985 World Snooker Championship final

Media outlets reported this as a major shock: Davis had been widely predicted to win the match, having lifted three of the previous four world championship titles.

The final took place during the eighth year of the BBC's daily coverage of the championship and reached a climax in the early hours of Monday 29 April.

The final is one of the most famous matches in snooker history and part of the reason for the surge in the sport's popularity in the 1980s and 1990s.

Two hour-long BBC documentaries, When Snooker Ruled the World from 2002 and Davis v Taylor: The '85 Black Ball Final made in 2010, commemorated the event.

The post-match single-word responses to David Vine from Davis would later be used as a basis for a recurring caricature of him in the television show Spitting Image.

[5][6] The final was broadcast on the BBC for the eighth year in a row,[7] with the winner receiving £60,000 (equivalent to £230,000 in 2023), the highest prize for a snooker event to that date.

[9] He then played David Taylor in the second round, holding at least a three-frame lead throughout much of the match, and eventually won 13–4 after winning seven frames out of eight.

[13] In the semi-final Taylor lost the first two frames against Tony Knowles, but won 16 of the next 19 to win 16–5, the same scoreline as Davis.

[22] The two players had met twelve months earlier in the semi-finals of the 1984 World Championship, Davis winning 16–9,[23][24] having only lost once to Taylor in nine matches.

[28] Taylor started the 1985 final with a break of 50 but lost that frame as Davis gained a firm advantage by whitewashing his opponent in the first session.

[29] Davis lost six of the next seven frames, as Taylor produced the highest break of the final, a 98, to trail 7–9 overnight.

[29] In response, Taylor again attempted to double the black ball, this time into the top-left corner pocket.

[29][31] After potting the ball, Taylor held his cue stick above his head and waggled his finger in celebration.

[21] The concluding moments of the final were watched by 18.5 million viewers, which as of 2020 is the most ever in the United Kingdom for a broadcast after midnight and for any BBC2 programme.

[43] Taylor never reached the final again,[42] but did win the Masters in 1987, again producing a comeback, this time against Alex Higgins.

[44] Taylor's mother had died in September 1984, the year prior, so he had dedicated his win at the 1984 Grand Prix in October to her.

[46] On his return to Northern Ireland, Taylor received a victory parade in a Land Rover across his home town of Coalisland in front of 10,000 people.

[48] The media described Davis as a "bad loser" for his silence and one-word responses to questions from David Vine at a press conference following the event.

The black-ball finish was voted the ninth greatest sporting moment of all time in a 2002 Channel 4 poll.