An attempt to get Americans to like Snooker
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by user Alex Holowczak
This is the greatest game of snooker ever played. It is the 1985 World Championship Final between Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor. The video starts with Davis 62-44 up in the 35th and final frame.
Davis led 8-0 before having his lead wiped out. Taylor levelled at 12-12. Davis led 14-12, 15-13, before Taylor levelled at 15 frames each. Davis then held a big lead in frame 33, having gone 17-15 up, but Taylor won both that and the next frame to level again at 17-17.
Then, after an hour in the final frame, this happened.
Remember, Brown=4 pts, Blue= 5pts, Pink=6pts, Black=7pts, and they have to hit and pot each of the balls left in that order. Also, the table is twice as long as a pool table, and twice as wide. You will also see the players deliberately not trying to pot a ball - i.e. they deliberately play safety shots, something not the norm in pool. The pockets are much tighter than on a pool table, so any ball on a cushion is only really pottable if played "deadweight", i.e. hard enough for it to just drop into the pocket. Any harder, it will miss. Anytime the cue ball is on the cushion, you have to strike down on the cueball. Which increases the chance of the pot missing. The Crucible Theatre is snooker's greatest venue.
Taylor is very much the fan favourite in this match, his glasses and personality endearing himself. Davis was three times World Champion, reigning World Champion, and World Number 1. Taylor was ranked 11 in the world, and was not fulfilling promise that many thought he had a decade previously. Taylor had already lost in one final, 24-17 in 1978 to Ray Reardon. The commentator is "whispering" Ted Lowe, very famous. The video is fast forwarded in places, because if not, it would last about twenty minutes. The match finished at after 20 past midnight, late considering most of the time, the aim is for sport to finish about 10:30 in Britain.
This video summarises Taylor's strife earlier in the match. It also explains some of the shot selections in the final frame.
