Steve Davis v Willie Thorne 1985 UK Final

The fantastic mjt_snooker youtube channel has posted the four session UK final from 1985. Lots of drama throughout, Thorne playing fantastically well for three sessions opened up a 13-8 lead going into the final session (Davis had done well to only be five frames behind).

However, Thorne clearing up in the first frame of the final session missed the blue off its spot (see around 6:32:00 mark) letting Davis off the hook. Instead of being 8-14 down, Davis roared back to win the match.

Well worth watching in its entirety. One of the best TC finals of the 1980s. Good to see WT in full flow for three sessions. What a fantastic break builder he was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHJO3N2c5rU

Thorne misses blue.

Jack Karnhm "I wonder if this is a moment we'll be talking about later in the night".

Spots the significance straight away. Class commentator.

Dave Hendon is correct. Best channel on youtube.

Seems Gary Lineker must take some of the blame. With Thorne leading 13-8 Lineker said to him that win the next frame and Davis would have to win 8-1 to win the match. Those words far from helping Thorne reminded him of the enormity he was in touching distance of achieving.

Also Thorne himself stated that he tried to stun the blue in as he didn't want the bother of walking around the table to play the pink. While the stun was a simple shot, to roll the blue in with top would be 100% unmissable. But that would mean going for a short walk for the pink.

I remember the match well. Great match. But you just knew there was only one winner after that shot. Surely one of the most infamous shots in history.

Not as infamous as Jimmy's missed black in 94,I still can't believe that one

Ronnie79 wrote:Not as infamous as Jimmy's missed black in 94,I still can't believe that one

I still have nightmares over that.

SnookerFan wrote:Remember the great Ronnie missed pink of 2014?

How could I forget. So now we have unforgettable misses on the blue, pink and black. Only the other 3 colours for a catastrophic colours non clearance!

Juddernaut88 wrote:Judd Trump missed frame ball yellow against Ronnie in the Tour Championship semi final deciding frame last season still so hard to take.

Probably wouldn’t have won everything that came after that, so swings and roundabouts

Paul Hunter missed a yellow off its spot to go 16-11 on Doherty in the WC semi-final.

Eddie Charlton missed an easy brown against Reardon in the 1975 World final to go 5 up with 6 to play.
John Higgins missed an even easier brown to go 8-7 up on Ding in the 2009 UK final.

Can't think of any important misses on the green, though, except Marco Fu against O'Sullivan in 2016 UK semi-final.

Some here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RrKWb5Sy8I

Empire State Human wrote:Paul Hunter missed a yellow off its spot to go 16-11 on Doherty in the WC semi-final.

Eddie Charlton missed an easy brown against Reardon in the 1975 World final to go 5 up with 6 to play.
John Higgins missed an even easier brown to go 8-7 up on Ding in the 2009 UK final.

Can't think of any important misses on the green, though, except Marco Fu against O'Sullivan in 2016 UK semi-final.

Some here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RrKWb5Sy8I

Always loved Paul Hunter simply saying "rubbish happens" after that SF against Doherty. What a loss he was, wonderful player.

That 75 final looks remarkable - just taken a look on Cuetracker. Momentum swung throughout and, given the time and conditions, a total of 26 breaks over 50 was pretty impressive. Both men played well.

Empire State Human wrote:Paul Hunter missed a yellow off its spot to go 16-11 on Doherty in the WC semi-final.

Eddie Charlton missed an easy brown against Reardon in the 1975 World final to go 5 up with 6 to play.
John Higgins missed an even easier brown to go 8-7 up on Ding in the 2009 UK final.

Can't think of any important misses on the green, though, except Marco Fu against O'Sullivan in 2016 UK semi-final.

Some here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RrKWb5Sy8I

It's much earlier in the contest but had Davis sunk a green in the ninth frame of the 1985 Final against Taylor it would have moved him to 9-0 in front having taken both of the evening frames at that stage. Davis himself says its one of those that had the match been much closer he would have played safe.

In hindsight how Charlton didn't ever win the World Championship is a mystery. In both the Finals he appeared in (and the Challenge match against Pullman in 1968) he had a lead of several frames even if the matches were over longer distances (73 frames in 1968. 75 in 1973 and 61 in 1975)

In 1968 he led Pullman 6-2
In 1973 he finished the opening session with a 7-0 lead.
In 1975 he was 29-23 ahead with nine frames to go.

The reason is because he was like Jimmy

SnookerFan wrote:Remember the great Ronnie missed pink of 2014?

But that pink did not do a thing to change the result of that match. Ronnie made a ton in the next to level at 12-12. It was just the grind that wore him down in the final session

PLtheRef wrote:

Empire State Human wrote:Paul Hunter missed a yellow off its spot to go 16-11 on Doherty in the WC semi-final.

Eddie Charlton missed an easy brown against Reardon in the 1975 World final to go 5 up with 6 to play.
John Higgins missed an even easier brown to go 8-7 up on Ding in the 2009 UK final.

Can't think of any important misses on the green, though, except Marco Fu against O'Sullivan in 2016 UK semi-final.

Some here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RrKWb5Sy8I

It's much earlier in the contest but had Davis sunk a green in the ninth frame of the 1985 Final against Taylor it would have moved him to 9-0 in front having taken both of the evening frames at that stage. Davis himself says its one of those that had the match been much closer he would have played safe.

In hindsight how Charlton didn't ever win the World Championship is a mystery. In both the Finals he appeared in (and the Challenge match against Pullman in 1968) he had a lead of several frames even if the matches were over longer distances (73 frames in 1968. 75 in 1973 and 61 in 1975)

In 1968 he led Pullman 6-2
In 1973 he finished the opening session with a 7-0 lead.
In 1975 he was 29-23 ahead with nine frames to go.

Looking at the details of 1975, Reardon did produce a string of sizeable breaks to win it: 60, 59, 62, 92, 62.

1985 still amazes me. Davis is on record as saying that the standard was not great but although there were no centuries, Taylor did make 13 breaks over 50.

In both cases, although there was a crucial miss it can be said that the eventual winner did find another gear.

As PL says, there were some big swings in those 1970s World Finals. I think Charlton was the kind of player that if he got on a roll he could easily monopolise a session. You could be frozen out for an hour or so at a time, by which point your cueing might have deserted you. That, and Reardon said he disliked morning sessions, which I think started as a half-joke to play up to his 'vampire' image, and that he began to believe it in the end.

The ’75 final was probably as dramatic as any finish the game has produced. Reardon won a number of finishes on the colours, and a re-spotted black, as Charlton collapsed… Collapsed literally, according to Reardon in the final frame: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8Bgf-ysZdo .

I think the final frame was a little more cagey at the start than Reardon acknowledges, and that he embellishes somewhat. This report suggests a bit more happened, based on the frame scores. The report shows a few diagrams of key shots, including the brown I mentioned, which would’ve put Charlton 30-25 up.

The Higgins one looked harder to miss almost, and he didn't even need the blue, although in a way he did as his opponent would have played on to try and get the snooker required so he did basically need the blue, for my money his miss was the most shocking out of all of them, unless he had a bet on the frame outcome or match score in frames, in that case he did well to miss it and leave it like he did if that was his intention, an intention that we sadly can't rule out for obvious reasons.

Empire State Human wrote:As PL says, there were some big swings in those 1970s World Finals. I think Charlton was the kind of player that if he got on a roll he could easily monopolise a session. You could be frozen out for an hour or so at a time, by which point your cueing might have deserted you. That, and Reardon said he disliked morning sessions, which I think started as a half-joke to play up to his 'vampire' image, and that he began to believe it in the end.

The ’75 final was probably as dramatic as any finish the game has produced. Reardon won a number of finishes on the colours, and a re-spotted black, as Charlton collapsed… Collapsed literally, according to Reardon in the final frame: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8Bgf-ysZdo .

I think the final frame was a little more cagey at the start than Reardon acknowledges, and that he embellishes somewhat. This report suggests a bit more happened, based on the frame scores. The report shows a few diagrams of key shots, including the brown I mentioned, which would’ve put Charlton 30-25 up.

This is fascinating! Such a shame there is no footage of this match.

If the pink is depicted as it was, that is up there with anything from ROS, MJW or Judd - in those circumstances.