Steve Davis v Cliff Thorburn 1986 World Championship SF

Mostly the 3rd and 4th sessions of this match.

[@hydroformer6802]

Cliff retired and only plays in the seniors tournaments now. Hell of gentleman and greatest Canadian snooker representative ever.

[@johnsrabe]

hydroformer and the man with the most Canadian name ever! Also Gordon Lightfoot-handsome. You can envision him in a canoe along the shores of James Bay.

[@parksyist]

He'd have been better off staying in Canada to play pool after he retired

[@trappenweisseguy27]

Kirk Stevens had the snooker world by the tail but he blew his career.

[@tonynaccarato4751]

Let's not forget George Chenier

[@simonwilson1686]

@@tonynaccarato4751 Thanks for that - I had never heard of him, and I remeber when Park Drive sponsered the World Championship ;)

[@tommycanavan8285]

Love these old matches.. Well done for showing these...

[@stephenmcdowell9210]

Watching this reminds me of just how good Davis was ''he was a machine in his day never missing 'nobody could touch him 'alough he lost a few but not many '''

[@sj460162]

Loved watching steve then.

[@tonynaccarato4751]

Steve is all class, the nugget was the face of the 80's, waiting in the wings were Hendry, Higgins and Ronnie.

[@bridgetdoman1386]

I was at the evening match for these two; had also been to the previous evening's semi with Joe Johnson, at the front next to the guy sat next to the bottom of the middle steps. Gave my then boyfriend a shock when he sat down to watch the Joe Johnson one as he didn't know I was going. Was also at the final but up near the back. Brilliant match.

[@paulwalker1793]

Two legends of the game .

[@tylerhay6560]

So many silly comments about speed of play! There’s plenty of high quality snooker here. Such a shame the match doesn’t survive in its entirety!

[@edmundpower1250]

Steve lightened up after losing to Denis Taylor and was more laid back after

[@richardwilliams170]

Brilliant. Love Davis.

[@opencurtin]

Cliff was really at his peak as a player 84, 85, 86 , he seemed to go in to decline as the 80s closed , he was one of the greats of the 80s , I enjoyed watching him play the grinder !!

[@trappenweisseguy27]

He was 38 years old (9 years older than Davis)in this match and past his prime obviously. An impossible contest between a 38 year old Davis vs a 38 year old Thorburn would have been interesting. I would likely put my money on Cliff in that match.

[@opencurtin]

@@trappenweisseguy27 Actually if you look at Thorburn's form in this period he was reaching finals winning tournaments more than any other time in his career , the longer match format probably was too much to take out Davis but he was still at his peak here IMO ..

[@trappenweisseguy27]

The most success of his career, but still almost 40. I believe he was barnstorming around Canada paying his dues prior to 1980 ish. His natural grinding play style also probably had him worn out by the finals in major tournaments.

[@dvidclapperton]

Matches like Thorburn vs Charlton, Tsylor vs Thorburn, Griffiths vs Thorburn, Taylor vs Griffiths, Charlton vs Taylor, Thorburn vs Griffiths @ 3.51am and Griffiths vs Charlton seemed to take an eternity to complete.

[@dvidclapperton]

@@opencurtin Thorburn Probably had the lowest frame difference of a player at the time who achieved so much success. Players like Thorburn and Doherty they seemed to win a lot more matches tight than a Davis or Hendry who both appeared to win convincingly in most of the matches that they won.

[@darrenmcgowan3932]

Great interviews at the end.

[@markwillcocks7701]

85/86 was cliffs best season he was number 2 at the time

[@kraichollin1673]

What song?

[@robmiller2811]

You don't have footage of Davis vs Reardon in a semifinal at the crucible? 1985 maybe?

[@Bloxdio_God]

Shame that. Reardon was way past his best and lost with a session to spare. I think he may have made a century though. Although he did better than Parrot in 89.

[@dlamiss]

@@Bloxdio_God you are correct he made exactly 100 if memory serves, he squeezed past Parrot 13/12 in the last 8

[@bilkomax]

​@@Bloxdio_GodReardon beat parrott in the 85 QF funnily enough

[@mikerusby]

I would love to see the 1981 semi final Thorburn vs davis. One of the best matches of all time, but never gets shown i think thats the one where Thorburn got upset about losing and reckoned he had 'more class in his ass' then Davis :)

[@jordanjordan9022]

2 hours 41 minutes; did they manage to finish the first frame?

[@mrghiax]

Oh they are still playing frame one but we are finally at a re-spotted black

[@johnmc3862]

Cliff is Ebdons spirit animal.

[@heliumtrophy]

Nah that's Steady Eddie Charlton.

[@davidjatt3251]

bugger me steve makes Cliff look fast.

[@a.tanner8524]

Joe Johnson looked like he’d had a couple of shandies there. Very funny and entertaining.

[@MrMartinmozz]

2:24:10 longest ever description of a re-rack lol

[@chrisfieldaselvis]

Bit of grinder!!!!!

[@dtyli77]

He was the same age here as Neil Robertson is now.

[@Bloxdio_God]

Neil wears a wig. Or he looks like he does.

[@parksyist]

Funny how a match can be so close for so long then one player just reels off a series of frames

[@trappenweisseguy27]

Cliff was 9 years older than Steve. The physical difference in stamina, eyesight and concentration were likely at play.

[@martinfarnworth6659]

@@trappenweisseguy27 you may well be right although look at O'Sullivan and John Higgins who can still play as well as ever. But Davis was just that bit better and more consistent as great as Thorburn was.

[@trappenweisseguy27]

I agree that Davis was the more thoroughbred of the two. The modern players have known for quite some time that they have to do physical training to maintain peak performance. Training for players back in the 80’s was booze, ciggies, and nose candy

[@martinfarnworth6659]

@@trappenweisseguy27 lol including Thorburn of course even if his ventures are less "celebrated" than Alex, Jimmy and Kirk

[@dvidclapperton]

@Craig Park That's the nature of long match snooker at the Crucible. Not most of the time wben you look at whole world chsmpionships is one player is completely dominant winning almost every frame for the whole 3 or 4 session match, or it's 13-12 or 16-15 but it's one frame in it or it goes one for one throughout. Historically at least one player reeling off a run of 6 or 7 frames on the trot, or both players in 3 or 4 session or both has happened far more often than not.

[@dlamiss]

Davis always seemed to beat Thorburn in the big games i cant remember Thorburn beating him in a major event. Sure someone will correct me

[@mjt_snooker1704]

In the major events, yes. Really, the only 'big' win for Cliff was the semi-final of the Grand Prix 1984, beating Davis 9-7 in a very good match, before losing tamely to Dennis Taylor 10-2 in the final.

[@johnmc3862]

Shows how dominant Davis was.

[@rubsey1]

Cliff beat him 5 or 6 times in regular tournaments but Davis always won in the WC. They never met in the UK or Masters.

[@MrChippiechappie]

Lost the final to Joe Johnson 18/12 but regained tge title the following year getting revenge on Johnson by beating him 18/12 winning two more world titles after that.

[@tobyharling719]

Davis beat Johnson 18-14.

[@maxmason6053]

The speed at which most of these old games are played is absolute torture.

[@gerryryan]

If a bad person died and went to hell this match would be on the telly down there

[@parksyist]

1 43 50 trick shot

[@johnsrabe]

1:02:30 “… a mistake now could be fatal!” I’m sure this commentator is a beloved BBC figure, but he’s pretty bad. He never illuminates the situation; he just states the obvious. “If he misses this shot, it’s his opponent’s turn!” “He has to pot the red ball before he pots the black ball.” “He’s angry that he missed that shot!”

[@dlamiss]

Always thought Lowe was an overrated commentator

[@gerryryan]

@@dlamiss another tapestry of snooker woven by Steve Davis was one of his more memorable sayings

[@parksyist]

They always had one summarising commentator and one expert/player. Ie Clive Everton Ted lowe or Jack karnehm summarises. Jim meadowcroft, Ray edmonds, John Spencer etc etc as experts/players

[@opencurtin]

Craig Park John Spencer was probably the best expert commentator of that era always called the right shots !

[@parksyist]

Agreed I always enjoy Eddie Charltons commentary too

[@stephenmcdowell9210]

The most 2 boring player s of 1986 'very slow 'cliffhanger thourbourne was a very very ssssllllloooowwww player he's actually fast in the first frame ''''zzzzzzzz

[@leebeardshall2888]

Sod off don't watch.

[@iblacka1]

Cliff was more boring than Peter Ebdon is!!

[@michaelgaskell2031]

The dullest player ever