The best thing about sport are those moments which encapsulate the beauty, the thrill, the heart-break and the joy.
The moments which have all these qualities, though, are rare, and it’s why they’re so memorable.
One such remarkable moments, to some even the most remarkable, was the 1985 World Snooker Championships final between Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor.
Few who were old enough at the time and had even a passing interest in sport - any sport - will be able to immediately recall the iconic image of Taylor holding his cue aloft having defeated Davis on the final black ball of the final frame in the final match of the tournament in what was one of the greatest moments in British sporting history.
That, after so many years, so many remember, are able to immediately recall and hold in such great affection, that World Championship final says it all about how great the match was.
Next weekend, this year’s World Snooker Championships will begin, and it’ll mark 40 years since the iconic Taylor-Davis final.
In the four decades since that clash, there’s not been a more tense, nerve-wracking, thrilling and astonishing World Championship victory.
Going into those 1985 World Championships, defending champion Davis was the hot favourite to win the title for the fourth time.
The Englishman duly eased into the final, where he faced Northern Ireland’s Taylor, ranked eleventh.
The early frames of the final went exactly to plan, with Davis white-washing Taylor in the first session to take a 7-0 lead, which he extended to 8-0 but from there, the annihilation abruptly stopped.
Taylor clawed the score back to 9-7 overnight, with Davis then clinging onto his lead to remain ahead at 13-11.
When Davis secured a 17-15 lead, just one frame from victory, it seemed the cards were on the table and the Englishman would, indeed successfully defend his title.
Such predictions couldn’t have been more wrong.
Taylor pulled the score back to 17-17 in a best-of 35 match and from there, the most famous frame in snooker history unfolded.
Davis was ahead the entire way, moving into a 62-59 lead with only the black ball remaining on the table.
From there, a back and forth of potting attempts and safety shots ensued, with both players missing some easy and some much trickier shots which, if potted, would have secured them the world championship.
It’s this kind of tension that makes sport so magical.
Ultimately, Taylor was the one who held his nerve, famously potting a relatively straightforward black ball before holding his cue aloft with both hands to create a moment that so many can still see in their mind’s eye.
Davis’ post-match interview was as terse as they come but much of that, it later became apparent, was down to his utter shell-shock at the result rather than any kind of unsporting behaviour towards Taylor.
That 1985 world title would remain Taylor’s greatest-ever achievement, while Davis would win three more world crowns in 1987, ’88 and ’89.
Despite his remarkable success throughout his career, however, Davis remains under no illusions as to what he’ll be remembered for, saying on his retirement: “I think the best moment of my career was missing the black against Dennis Taylor,” with this opinion coming from the knowledge that the 1985 final was largely responsible for sport’s boom in popularity in the 1980s and ’90s across the UK.
Indeed, such is the affection in which the "Black Ball Final" is still held by the public, Taylor and Davis, who became close friends as a result of their legacies being so intertwined, this year have embarked on a 40th anniversary tour of that 1985 final, with the pair currently in the midst of a UK-wide tour of theatres which sees them recreate that iconic final.
In recalling the 1985 final, and the impact it made, it becomes apparent quite how far snooker has fallen in both the public’s consciousness and affections.
The sport still draws a decent-sized audience, particularly for the World Championships, which remain at the Crucible Theatre for now despite the growing calls to move it to a more modern venue, but the pull of the sport is nothing like it was in its heyday.
Indeed, darts has replaced snooker as the pub game that has become mainstream.
There are several reasons for snooker’s fall from grace; first is the considerable competition for media coverage given how many more sports are televised these days. Back in 1985, remember, live sporting events on the television were few and far between and so being able to devour hour upon hour of live coverage of the World Snooker Championships for two weeks a year was a genuine treat. I know I racked up hundreds of hours of the tournament over the years in the late '80s and '90s.
And secondly, snooker just doesn’t have the personalities winning tournaments in the way it did.
From Davis and Taylor to Alex Higgins to Stephen Hendry to Ronnie O’Sullivan, snooker has produced more than a few household names. These were guys who transcended their sport.
But the players at the top of the game now - Judd Trump; Kyren Wilson; Mark Selby and a raft of Chinese players - just don’t engage the public in the way the players managed in the past.
To see snooker, which formed countless formative sporting memories for so many people my age go into decline as it has is both sad and regretful.
But its decline has also played such a significant part in ensuring the legacy of Taylor and Davis’ 1985 final lives on.
40 years later, it remains one of the great British sporting moments.
And there’s little sign of it slipping off that list any time soon.
