Dennis Taylor

DENNIS TAYLOR (1949)

 

Retired professional snooker player, natural de Coalisland (North Ireland) and currently a BBC commentator.

Honours: World Champion in 1985, Grand Prix Champion in 1984, Masters Champion in 1987, five-time Irish Professional Tournament Champion, 2 times Champion of the Canadian Masters, 3 times winner of the "World Cup".

Winner of two ranking events, is best known for having won the World Championship of 1985, beating number Steve Davis on the last quarter note, in one of the most memorable finals in the sport. He also won the Grand Prix in 1984 and the Masters in 1987.

Taylor is also well known for his sense of humor and oversized glasses.. Made regular appearances on the snooker-based game show "Big Break".

Taylor turned pro at 1972 and made his World Championship debut a year later, narrowly losing to Cliff Thorburn in the first round. After losing the semifinals of the World Championship in 1975 Y 1977, Taylor reached her first grand finale in 1979, but he lost 16-24 against newcomer Terry Griffiths. His first victory in a ranking tournament would come in 1984, when he won the Rothmans Grand Prix beating Cliff Thorburn in the final by 10-2.

In 1985 reached his second World Championship final, when he faced Steve Davis, what was number one, the world champion at the time and the dominant player of the decade of 1980.
Taylor lost 8-0 , but it was going up little by little until the match was even 17-17.

In an incredibly tense final frame, the marker was 62-44 for Davis with just the brown, blue, pink and black on the table. While Davis needed only the brown, Taylor needed to pocket all the colored balls. Did a long shot on the brown, which according to him was one of his best shots ever made under pressure, and he also holed a complicated blue and a difficult pink. I put the score like this 62-59 and made sure that, for the first time in history, the title would be decided with the black ball.

Taylor finally holed the black after Davis missed a tricky shot on the upper pocket and amid scenes of euphoria., well after midnight, took the title to the 36 years, relatively old age. The final was seen live by more than 18 million viewers, via BBC, becoming an absolute audience record. Obviously, after winning the Championship, Taylor's popularity skyrocketed. Upon returning to his hometown (Coalisland) with the trophy all the citizens were waiting to congratulate him and, from that moment, became a regular on television.

Do not miss the video, you can enjoy the mythical last frame of a final that made history.

 

 

As with all the other first-time world champions so far, Taylor succumbed to the "curse of the Crucible" upon her return the following year., losing 10-6 against Mike Hallett in the opening game. He acknowledged defeat with humor, putting the handkerchief on the end of his heel to make it look like a white flag.

He won the Masters in 1987, superando a Alex Higgins (9-8) in the end, after trailing 5-8. Taylor's comeback is said to have been due to overhearing Higgins's manager ordering champagne to celebrate the impending victory..

 

 

Taylor and Davis met for the second time at the World Championship 1991, this time in the quarterfinals. Davis won the match to play what would be his last semi-final in this tournament.

Taylor was known for the glasses he wore during games, with a large and unusual structure (as if they were backwards) but necessary to avoid having to look down over the lens when taking a shot.

As a member of the “Matchroom” player group (sporting events promotion company led by founding businessman and owner Barry Hearn and his son Eddie), Taylor performed "Snooker Loopie", a hit single with the English pop-rock duo “Chas & Dave ”who reached the position 5 on the UK Singles Chart.

Taylor's form progressively deteriorated over the years 90 and left the top 16 after the World Championship 1994, being the last remaining player of those who entered the original ranking of 1976. Stopped playing in the year 2000.

He currently works as a commentator on all three BBC televised snooker tournaments and is known for his good faith and lighthearted, light-hearted comments..
He has an autobiography called "Frame a frame".

As already mentioned at the beginning of this post, Taylor has a great sense of humor. Proof of this is the parody he offered us, with Steve Davis, of the historic last frame of the Final of the World Championship of 1985.

Enjoy the video, that surely makes you smile more than one.