"I think we're living in the golden age of snooker now, and we've got so many great players to tap into. You've got to be even more outrageous if you want to be a character today"
Friday 17 April 2020 12:59, UK
"If they are going to show the 1985 final again I'll need to see the schedule because I'm going out - and I'll break any rules to do it," Steve Davis says he won't sit through the classic black ball final again.
Even long days of self-isolation will not stir 'The Nugget' to sit through another repeat of his defeat to Dennis Taylor as the World Snooker Championship prepare to roll back the years over the next 17 days.
The postponement of this year's event, which was due to begin in Sheffield on Saturday, means re-runs of classic matches.
It is the prospect of once again watching the most famous frame in snooker history that has left Davis, now 62, joking about the drastic measures he may be forced into taking to avoid it.
You can strap me in a chair and I'll watch 'Steady' Eddie Charlton playing 25 frames against Cliff Thorburn until three o'clock in the morning.
"If they are going to show the 1985 final again I'll need to see the schedule because I'm going out - and I'll break any rules to do it," he said.
"I'd rather watch any other defeat of mine. In fact, you can strap me in a chair and I'll watch 'Steady' Eddie Charlton playing 25 frames against Cliff Thorburn until three o'clock in the morning."
The tournament's postponement has robbed the sport of the traditional April date it has kept since it was first played at the Crucible in 1977.
In an era which currently offers the likes of Ronnie O'Sullivan and Judd Trump, Davis gives short shrift to suggestions that the 1980s somehow represented the halcyon days for recognisable names.
"It's the same thing as when people say policemen are getting younger these days," added Davis. "It's actually the selective memory of people who are getting older.
"If you name some 'characters' - Terry (Griffiths), Cliff - they weren't exactly the fastest players on the planet.
"It will be nice to watch all the old stuff but it will remind us that a lot of it wasn't that good. There was no century break in the 1985 final, and the standard of play these days has gone through the roof.
"I think we're living in the golden age of snooker now, and we've got so many great players to tap into. You've got to be even more outrageous if you want to be a character today."
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