Thirty years ago this month something as basic as two men hitting balls around a table with a stick gripped the nation by the throat. It was as iconic a moment of the Eighties as Duran Duran, yuppies, football hooliganism and Mrs Thatcher handbagging the unions. It was Steve Davis — lean, robotic and unsmiling — versus Dennis Taylor — tubby and splendidly bespectacled. ‘And so the lights go down,’ whispered commentator Ted Lowe to 18.5million viewers. ‘The players shake hands. One of these lucky chaps will pick up the title, the trophy and £60,000.’ Steve Davis (left) and Dennis Taylor pose with the trophy before their World Snooker final in 1985 . Davis was leading the final 8-0 when he missed a shot on the green that he has rued to this day . Taylor pounced upon the error from Davis to overturn the difference and lead 9-7 overnight . The 1985 final was watched by 18.5million, a BBC2 record, but it is way behind the most-watched sporting events: . 1. 1966 World Cup final 32.30m . 2. 1970 FA Cup final replay Chelsea v Leeds 28.49m . 3. 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony 27.3m . 4. 2012 Closing Ceremony26.3m . 5. 1984 Winter Olympics Torvill and Dean23.95m . 6. 1998 World Cup England v Argentina 23.78m . With those words the biggest British television audience for a post-midnight programme and BBC2’s biggest for anything ever, settled down to watch the 35th and final frame of the 1985 World Championship, a torture of edgy, error-ridden, nerve-frayed snooker lasting 68 minutes. Before reliving those late agonies, we should go back a little further because Davis remembers the turning point of the match not as the black he overcut with his last, disastrous shot of the tournament, but something as innocuous as a green ball in the ninth frame. He was leading 8-0 while Taylor, as Davis put it, was ‘struggling to find the end of his tip with the chalk, never mind the pockets’. Davis says now: ‘If ever I was going to have therapy, it would not be about the black. Anybody could miss a ball under pressure. The green was a different story because I didn’t need to play it. I should have played safe and waited for a better chance. ‘If there is one shot in my whole career I want to go back and play again, it is that one. I missed it and it let Dennis in.’ From being on the verge of 9-0 down, Taylor fought back to 9-7 overnight. ‘I woke up screaming every hour,’ recalls Davis. He was the world No 1, winner the previous two years, and had made the perfect start. ‘What could go wrong?’ he muses now. ‘The green.’ Taylor performs his famous finger-wagging celebration after sinking the final black . To rake up that final with Davis even now is to intrude into a type of personal grief. ‘While I am happy to talk about it, I’m slightly aggrieved that nobody celebrated the 25th anniversary of me beating John Parrott 18-3 in 1989,’ he says, three-quarters joking. ‘Dennis loves it, of course. We say that every opportunity he gets in the commentary box he somehow manages to turn the conversation around to the ’85 final, even when we are discussing a free ball.’ Davis’s lead went from 14-11 to 15-12 to 15-15 to 17-15. Then all square at 17-17. Snooker was in its heyday, with cartoon-book characters such as Hurricane Higgins and Whirlwind White putting it second only to football in national popularity and this frame was the zenith. Davis sipped his water sparingly throughout. Taylor frequently muttered to his mother, who had died, aged 62, a few months before. It provided him with a welcome distraction from watching Davis dominating the table. But the championship came down to the final four balls. Taylor needed them all. He potted a great long brown, a difficult blue and a tricky pink. Taylor went over to kiss the little lady on the trophy before taking on the black. Davis led again 14-11 but the pair were eventually all square at 17-17 in Sheffield . The final came down to four balls left on the table and Taylor needed them all to claim victory . Taylor looks to the trophy for inspiration before taking an important shot in the final against Davis . Davis missed a black that seven out of ten times in competition he would have converted . ‘I don’t know why I did it to this day,’ he said. ‘I think it was either I am going to win you with this shot or lose you with it. I had made my mind up I was going to go for it.’ Taylor tries to double the black into the middle pocket. ‘The crowd opposite the pocket were in a better position than me to see it and they started cheering,’ says Taylor. ‘But it missed by a fraction.’ Davis then plays a superb safety shot, doubling the black from one end to the other. Taylor tries to double it again, this time up and down the table. It falls safe. Davis fluffs his next shot and lets Taylor in — a long black through the blue and green spots and his first genuine chance to take the title. ‘I twitched on it,’ recalls Taylor. ‘It was the biggest twitch ever seen at the Crucible. My head came up and the cue jerked at it. I missed it by so much the black came back and I almost fluked it at the other end.’ Now here was Davis’s chance: a cut into the bottom corner pocket. ‘I walked away thinking there was no way he would miss it,’ says Taylor. Thirty years on, Davis reckons he would have potted this shot nine times out of 10 in practice and seven out of 10 in competition. ‘It was tough but gettable and I was meant to be the man who got everything,’ he says. Referee John Williams calls for silence. Davis approaches the table. ‘I remember that walk was surreal, an out-of-body experience. My legs had gone. It did not feel as if any part of my anatomy was playing that shot.’ He crouches in total silence but overcuts the ball. Davis: ‘I knew I’d lost it at that moment.’ He put his hand to his head. He was white. The black he had left was straight forward. Only nerves could cause Taylor to flunk it. There were more cheers. Taylor, the underdog, was anecdotally most people’s choice to win, though ironically it turned out that his future wife, Louise, was supporting Davis as she watched the match at home. Taylor remembers: ‘I couldn’t believe I was coming back to the table. As I took the shot, I didn’t even grip the cue; I let it rest in my hand, so I would have to let go of it and it wouldn’t deviate.’ It worked, and the black was sunk. Taylor potted a straight forward black to win the final after 14 hours and 50 minutes of snooker . Davis looks at the ground after losing the final he had never been behind in until the last ball hit the pocket . Taylor kisses the trophy after finally emerging victorious after his lengthy duel with Davis . And so after 14 hours and 50 minutes of snooker, for every second of which Taylor had been behind, he was the champion of the world. He held his cue aloft in both hands above his head and pumped it over his head. He wagged his finger. It was an ‘I told you so gesture’ aimed at his friend Trevor East, head of ITV Sport, who had watched all but one session of Taylor’s entire championship campaign. It was 12.19am and time for bed. ‘Interesting’ by Steve Davis is published by Ebury Press, priced at £20.
Snooker's most dramatic final gripped 18.5million viewers in 1985 . Steve Davis had an 8-0 advantage when he missed a green ball . Dennis Taylor fought back heroically and eventually won the final 18-17 .