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SNOOKER: Win changed my life, says Dennis Taylor
TWENTY-FIVE years have passed since Dennis Taylor's famous victory on the green baize in Sheffield.
As the Snooker World Championships begin again at the Crucible today, Neil Goulding looks back on an iconic moment in sporting history.
ONE pot to win the World Snooker Championship. One more moment of fierce concentration needed to fulfil a lifelong ambition. The kudos of being crowned the Crucible champion within palpable touching distance.
His heart was pumping, his focus locked and the small matter of 18.5 million television viewers glued to his every move shortly after midnight added extra drama to the occasion.
Dennis Taylor had produced one of the bravest ever comebacks in the professional game and, one single pot on the final black ball stood between him and the famous title.
His opponent - the three-time Crucible winner Steve Davis - was gunning for his fourth World Championship crown.
But the "Nugget" missed his chance on the final black in the very last frame of an epic best-of-35 frame marathon - and Taylor had his chance.
Davis' surprise miss left Taylor with a deft mid-range cut into the top right-hand corner pocket to win snooker's holy grail. If 'that' final black ball had not disappeared, the Northern Ireland cueman knew his chance to become the world snooker champ might have slipped his grasp for ever.
Taylor didn't miss and, as they saying goes, the rest is history.
This month marks the 25th anniversary of Taylor's famous Crucible triumph - and the 61-year-old can rightly look back on the highlight of his career with plenty of pride.
So it's little surprise the now popular BBC pundit is relishing a specially-arranged one-frame re-match with Davis at this year's tournament to mark the anniversary of their great battle back in 1985.
"I've been practising a bit. I've not picked a cue up properly for six or seven years, so I thought I'd better start doing a bit of work," revealed Taylor, who clearly hasn't lost any of his competitive edge.
"It's crazy it's been 25 years since the final. It's nice we're going to play this one-frame shootout, it's a bit of fun. We'll both want to win!"
Recalling his famous victory, he said: "Someone asked me afterwards, 'How long do you think that last frame lasted?' I thought about 20 to 25 minutes, and in fact it lasted 68 minutes. Me and Steve were both caught up in the drama.
"It's hard to imagine 18.5 million people watching us play that last frame, but I think that's probably a modest estimate. The final attracted so much attention, people still come up to us both now and ask us about it.
"I remember going back to Northern Ireland and about 3,500 people turned out to see me parade the trophy. It was an unbelievable feeling.
"I remember I was in a hotel in Dublin after I'd won the title and this chap, who'd watched the final with his wife, looked like he wanted to speak to me.
"He waited until I was leaving and came up to me and said: "Mr Taylor, you got it all wrong, you've given my wife more hours of pleasure than I have!' I had to laugh, it was probably one of the funniest things I'd heard since I won the title.
"A lot of people point out there wasn't a single century break in the final, but it was still a very high standard. There were 17 breaks over 50 and we were both fighting for our lives.
"The pressure was unbelievable. The longer the match went on you could see Steve getting whiter and whiter, but I was getting redder and redder. I looked like a beetroot."
Steve Davis shares similar memories of that night.
"It really was a battle of survival. I remember potting the last red and failing to get position on the last colour. My heart sank. I had this feeling of not wanting to hard the rest back to the referee because I knew I wasn't on the last ball.
"Me and Dennis can have a laugh about it now, but at the time I was so determined to win. To lose the final was a horrible feeling."
Having failed to dish up on the last frame, Davis left Taylor with a series of difficult shots for victory.
Taylor remembers: "I needed the four remaining colours and I'd made my mind up I was just going to go for it.
"Any sort of shot I played, I wasn't going to lose the match playing a safety.
"I potted a fantastic brown. It was probably one of the best shots I've played made under pressure - and then I remember potting a quite difficult blue.
"I knocked in a difficult pink with the white being on the cushion, but the black was out of commission. I remember it was tight against the cushion just behind the middle pocket.
"If it goes in I win, if it doesn't I don't. I missed the pot by a fraction, but luckily for me the black went safe on the top cushion.
"Steve played one of the best safety shots I've ever seen under pressure. I do remember there were so many safety shots player in that last frame, before we got on the final few balls, it was quite amazing.
"I didn't play a great shot and he had a great chance to win the match. It was a pot he'd get 99 times out of a 100."
Davis adds: "I don't really know how I missed the black, but when I missed I knew Dennis would win."
Taylor celebrated by stamping on the floor, wagging his finger to a friend in the audience and holding his cue aloft with sheer emotion and joy running through his veins.
"It was an unbelievable feeling to have won it, all the emotions came flooding out," said Taylor.
"It was a brilliant achievement and one I'm still really proud of now. But also I'm really proud to have been involved in such a great final."
A week after losing to Taylor, Davis was booked for an exhibition in Sheffield and admitted he was "physically sick" when he drove past the Crucible.
But now the two good-humoured snooker legends can have a joke about the final and often do sporting lunches and evenings together to keep the memory of their 'best ever' final very much alive.
It waits to be seen what will happen after they roll back the years in their one-frame anniversary re-match.
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He waited until I was leaving and came up to me and said: "Mr Taylor, you got it all wrong, you've given my wife more hours of pleasure than I have!' I had to laugh, it was probably one of the funniest things I'd heard since I won the title.
"A lot of people point out there wasn't a single century break in the final, but it was still a very high standard. There were 17 breaks over 50 and we were both fighting for our lives.
"The pressure was unbelievable. The longer the match went on you could see Steve getting whiter and whiter, but I was getting redder and redder. I looked like a beetroot."
Steve Davis shares similar memories of that night.
"It really was a battle of survival. I remember potting the last red and failing to get position on the last colour. My heart sank. I had this feeling of not wanting to hard the rest back to the referee because I knew I wasn't on the last ball.
"Me and Dennis can have a laugh about it now, but at the time I was so determined to win. To lose the final was a horrible feeling."
Having failed to dish up on the last frame, Davis left Taylor with a series of difficult shots for victory.
Taylor remembers: "I needed the four remaining colours and I'd made my mind up I was just going to go for it.
"Any sort of shot I played, I wasn't going to lose the match playing a safety.
"I potted a fantastic brown. It was probably one of the best shots I've played made under pressure - and then I remember potting a quite difficult blue.
"I knocked in a difficult pink with the white being on the cushion, but the black was out of commission. I remember it was tight against the cushion just behind the middle pocket.
"If it goes in I win, if it doesn't I don't. I missed the pot by a fraction, but luckily for me the black went safe on the top cushion.
"Steve played one of the best safety shots I've ever seen under pressure. I do remember there were so many safety shots player in that last frame, before we got on the final few balls, it was quite amazing.
"I didn't play a great shot and he had a great chance to win the match. It was a pot he'd get 99 times out of a 100."
Davis adds: "I don't really know how I missed the black, but when I missed I knew Dennis would win."
Taylor celebrated by stamping on the floor, wagging his finger to a friend in the audience and holding his cue aloft with sheer emotion and joy running through his veins.
"It was an unbelievable feeling to have won it, all the emotions came flooding out," said Taylor.
"It was a brilliant achievement and one I'm still really proud of now. But also I'm really proud to have been involved in such a great final."
A week after losing to Taylor, Davis was booked for an exhibition in Sheffield and admitted he was "physically sick" when he drove past the Crucible.
But now the two good-humoured snooker legends can have a joke about the final and often do sporting lunches and evenings together to keep the memory of their ‘best ever' final very much alive.
It waits to be seen what will happen after they roll back the years in their one-frame anniversary re-match.
It's 25 years since Dennis Taylor's famous victory on the green baize in Sheffield. As the Snooker World Championships begin again at the Crucible today, Neil Goulding looks back on an iconic moment in sporting history
ONE pot to win the World Snooker Championship. One more moment of fierce concentration needed to fulfil a lifelong ambition. The kudos of being crowned the Crucible champion within palpable touching distance.
His heart was pumping, his focus locked and the small matter of 18.5 million television viewers glued to his every move shortly after midnight added extra drama to the occasion.
Dennis Taylor had produced one of the bravest ever comebacks in the professional game and, one single pot on the final black ball stood between him and the famous title.
His opponent - the three-time Crucible winner Steve Davis - was gunning for his fourth World Championship crown.
But the "Nugget" missed his chance on the final black in the very last frame of an epic best-of-35-frame marathon - and Taylor had his chance.
Davis' surprise miss left Taylor with a deft mid-range cut into the top right-hand corner pocket to win snooker's holy grail. If that final black ball had not disappeared, the Northern Ireland cueman knew his chance to become the world snooker champ might have slipped his grasp for ever.
Taylor didn't miss and, as they saying goes, the rest is history.
This month marks the 25th anniversary of Taylor's famous Crucible triumph - and the 61-year-old can rightly look back on the highlight of his career with plenty of pride.
So it's little surprise the now popular BBC pundit is relishing a specially-arranged one-frame rematch with Davis at this year's tournament to mark the anniversary of their great battle back in 1985.
"I've been practising a bit. I've not picked a cue up properly for six or seven years, so I thought I'd better start doing a bit of work," revealed Taylor, who clearly has lost none of his competitive edge.
"It's crazy, it's been 25 years since the final. It's nice we're going to play this one-frame shootout, it's a bit of fun. We'll both want to win!"
Recalling his famous victory, he said: "Someone asked me after, ‘How long do you think that frame lasted?' I thought about 20 to 25 minutes, and in fact it lasted 68 minutes. Me and Steve were both caught up in the drama.
"It's hard to imagine 18.5 million people watching us play that last frame, but I think that's probably a modest estimate. The final attracted so much attention, people still come up to us both now and ask us about it.
"I remember going back to Northern Ireland and about 3,500 people turned out to see me parade the trophy. It was an unbelievable feeling.
"I remember I was in a hotel in Dublin after I'd won the title and this chap, who'd watched the final with his wife, looked like he wanted to speak. He waited until I was leaving and came up to me and said: "Mr Taylor, you got it all wrong, you've given my wife more hours of pleasure than I have!' I had to laugh, it was probably one of the funniest things I'd heard since I won the title.
"A lot of people point out there wasn't a single century break in the final, but it was still a very high standard. There were 17 breaks over 50 and we were both fighting for our lives.
"The pressure was unbelievable. The longer the match went on you could see Steve getting whiter and whiter, but I was getting redder and redder. I looked like a beetroot."
Steve Davis shares similar memories of that night.
"It really was a battle of survival. I remember potting the last red and failing to get position on the last colour. My heart sank. I had this feeling of not wanting to hand the rest back to the referee because I knew I wasn't on the last ball. Me and Dennis can have a laugh about it now, but at the time I was so determined to win. To lose the final was a horrible feeling."
Having failed to clear up, Davis left Taylor with a series of difficult shots for victory.
Taylor says: "I needed the four remaining colours and I'd made my mind up I was just going to go for it. Any sort of shot I played, I wasn't going to lose the match playing a safety.
"I potted a fantastic brown. It was probably one of the best shots I've played under pressure - and then I remember potting a quite difficult blue.
"I knocked in a difficult pink with the white being on the cushion, but the black was out of commission. I remember it was tight against the cushion just behind the middle pocket.
"If it goes in I win, if it doesn't I don't. I missed the pot by a fraction, but luckily for me the black went safe on the top cushion.
"Steve played one of the best safety shots I've ever seen under pressure. I do remember there were so many safety shots played in that last frame, before we got on the final few balls, it was quite amazing. I didn't play a great shot and he had a great chance to win the match. It was a pot he'd get 99 times out of a 100."
Davis says: "I don't really know how I missed the black, but when I missed I knew Dennis would win."
Taylor celebrated by stamping on the floor, wagging his finger to a friend in the audience and holding his cue aloft with emotion and joy running through his veins.
"It was an unbelievable feeling to have won it, all the emotions came flooding out," says Taylor.
"It was a brilliant achievement and one I'm still really proud of now. But also I'm really proud to have been involved in such a great final."
A week after losing to Taylor, Davis was booked for an exhibition in Sheffield and admitted he was "physically sick" when he drove past the Crucible.
But now the two snooker legends can have a joke about the final and often do sporting lunches and evenings together to keep the memory of their ‘best ever' final very much alive. It waits to be seen what will happen after they roll back the years in their one-frame anniversary rematch.
n Too good not to win: Page 41
‘Mr Taylor, you've given my wife more hours of pleasure than I have'
Top of the world: Dennis Taylor can't conceal his joy after lifting the World Snooker Championship trophy in 1985
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