The 1985 Pot Black was the seventeenth edition of the professional invitational snooker tournament, which took place in December 1984 but was broadcast in 1985. The tournament was held at Pebble Mill Studios in Birmingham, and featured sixteen professional players in a knock-out system. All matches until the semi-final were one-frame shoot-outs, the semi-final was aggregate score of two frames and the final being contested over the best of three frames.
Broadcasts were on BBC2 and started at 21:00 on Tuesday 8 January 1985 David Icke took over from Alan Weeks as presenter with Ted Lowe remaining as commentator and John Williams as referee.
The 16 players competing were all the last 16 players from the 1984 World Snooker Championship. Debuts include John Parrott and Neal Foulds who previously played in Junior Pot Black and Bill Werbeniuk. Doug Mountjoy won the event, his thirteenth professional title, beating Jimmy White 2–0 in the final. This was also Mountjoy's second Pot Black title; previously, he had won the 1978 edition.
Main draw
Match dates of transmission
Player 1Player 2Broadcast Date Doug Mountjoy Kirk Stevens8 January 1985 Cliff Thorburn David Taylor15 January 1985 Dennis Taylor Bill Werbeniuk22 January 1985 Jimmy White John Parrott 29 January 1985 Neal Foulds Ray Reardon 5 February 1985 Willie Thorne Eddie Charlton 12 February 1985 Terry Griffiths Silvino Francisco 19 February 1985 Steve Davis John Spencer 26 February 1985 Doug Mountjoy Neal Foulds 5 March 1985 Cliff Thorburn Willie Thorne 12 March 1985 Dennis Taylor Terry Griffiths 19 March 1985 Jimmy White Steve Davis 26 March 1985 Doug Mountjoy Dennis Taylor2 April 1985 Jimmy White Cliff Thorburn 3 April 1985 Doug Mountjoy Jimmy White9 April 1985
Final Final: Best of 3 frames.Pebble Mill Studios, Birmingham, England, 20 December 1984 (Broadcast 9 April 1985). Doug Mountjoy 2–0 Jimmy White
References