April is all about the World Championships with both the
qualifying stages and the main event in Sheffield. Of course, the 2015 World Championships
represented the 30 year anniversary of the famous black ball final
between Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor that attracted so many viewers on that
late night in 1985. Both guys were having to do a lot of promotional stuff
surrounding the fact it was 30 years since that night, and of course one man
was enjoying it all a lot more than the other as Dennis laps anything to do
with 1985 up and tries to mention it to anyone as often as he possibly can.
However, at the ripe old age of 57 he took up the invitation
to play in the World Championship qualifiers and was drawn to play Jamie Cope.
Jamie was under pressure needing a win to ensure of his tour survival, while a
loss would probably see him having to start off next season from £0 in the
ranking list getting a tour card via the European Order of Merit.
As for Davis he was under no pressure as an invite having
dropped off tour after losing to Craig Steadman in qualifying a year earlier.
With the poor form of Cope and Davis clearly still capable
as he showed at points of the Seniors a month or so earlier, I actually tipped
Steve to win (so he can thank me whenever he likes) but who knew what was going
to actually happen during the match.
The first thing Steve did was to take a 4-0 lead at the
first mid-session break, and he was ahead at 5-1 at one point of the first
session before Cope won all of the last three frames to close to 4-5 at the end
of the session.
Coming back in the evening then, it was still very much in
the balance and was surely to be a nervy night for all involved. Jamie levelled
the match at 5-5 after the opening frame but lost the next two to trail 7-5 as
Davis waded in with a break of 96 along the way. 93 from Jamie saw him close
the gap back up to one, sharing the opening four frames of the night to trail
6-7 at the interval.
Davis went two clear again at 8-6 but Cope dragged him back
only to fall 9-7 adrift after a couple of scrappy frames. Inevitably Cope kept
on fighting and was able to drag the match into a deciding frame, which many
could see coming before the match started. Steve made an early 53 in the
decider but it wasn’t enough to seal the match. Cope needed a few chances to
get back into the frame but when it came down to the colours he missed a tough
pink with a chance to clear. After some safety on that pink Davis knocked in
from range, which left a fairly tough black to follow, but he knocked it in 30
years on from his black ball blunder this time it was black ball beauty for
Steve as he got himself into the second qualifying round a 10-9 winner. A year
on from being relegated from the tour himself, Davis had effectively relegated
Cope with that win (in case you thought the coincidences were over).
The best thing about the moment for me was when at the very
start of coverage on the BBC at the Crucible the 30 year anniversary came up in
conversation and Davis was able to mention that he had managed to have a win in
qualifying on the final black, just to put Dennis in his place a little bit.
Unfortunately the dream wasn’t to continue for Steve as he
lost in the next round 10-3 against Kurt Maflin who went on to qualify and push
defending champion Selby all the way in another thriller on the opening night
at the Crucible.
Tomorrow we will have a double bill with nominations from both May and June being revealed. And of course, Merry Christmas to you all for the big day tomorrow!!
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