What are the top 10 most iconic misses in snooker history after Mark Allen slams 'shocking' error in World Championship semi-final?
By Desmond Kane
Updated 29/05/2026 at 06:46 GMT+1
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Mark Allen is not the first snooker player in history to be left replaying a key miss in a major final. History suggests he will almost certainly not be the last.
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The Antrim man had one foot in the final of the World Championship last month when he sized up a routine match-ball black against Wu Yize at the Crucible.
But he inexplicably failed to sink a black off the spot as his opponent staged a great escape with a 17-16 win before defeating Shaun Murphy 18-17 to claim the sport's biggest prize.
Snooker continues to be littered with such moments of magic and inexplicable mayhem as we recall here.
1. Steve Davis v Dennis Taylor, 1985 World Championship final
The black-ball final was dramatic in its day, a cultural phenomenon and will be remembered as one of the most celebrated finales in the history of British TV sport with 18.5m, a record audience, watching on terrestrial television.
Yet it did not contain a single century over 35 frames, and was probably recalled as truly nail-biting because both men felt the pressure right until the bitter end.
Davis had blown an 8-0 lead and missed a relatively straightforward cutback on a black to claim the crown after midnight in the early hours of 29 April, 1985.
It left a flushed Northern Irishman Taylor wiping the steam from his goggles to sink the winning black before wagging his finger in the air like an excitable umpire at Lord's.
2. Jimmy White v Stephen Hendry, 1994 World Championship final
Jimmy 'Whirlwind' White lost in six Crucible finals, but will never come as close to lifting the world title as he did on May 2, 1994.
In his sixth, and what would prove to be his final fateful stab at becoming world champion, White came up agonisingly short.
He had suffered five final defeats to Steve Davis in 1984, John Parrott in 1991 and Stephen Hendry in 1990, 1992 and 1993, but finally seemed set to lift the sport's most coveted prize.
White had trailed 5-1 on Sunday, but fought back courageously and was among the balls in the final frame when he choked a black off its spot as the realisation dawned that he was on the verge of ending his reign as sport’s ultimate nearly man.
The rest as they say is history with Hendry, who had triumphed despite fracturing an elbow earlier in the tournament, contributing a priceless 58 to win his fourth of seven world titles.
3. Mark Allen v Wu Yize, 2026 World Championship semi-final
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'I just didn't handle the pressure' - Allen on missing match-ball in semi-final loss
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Allen has revealed that he has no explanation for the "shocking" missed black that cost him a spot in the 50th world final at the Crucible last month.
The Northern Irishman was on the brink of securing a World Snooker Championship final showdown with Shaun Murphy last month as he lined up the final black that would have sealed a 17-15 semi-final win over Wu.
But he somehow jawed the black off the spot before Wu hit back from 47-0 behind in the decider to deny Allen a maiden appearance in the sport's title match with a match-clinching 71 break.
With Wu progressing to edge out Murphy 18-17 to become China's second successive world champion, Allen is hoping his career is not defined by the memory of the missed black.
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'Could not write a script like this' - Allen misses match-ball black and Wu pots it to stay alive
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4. Willie Thorne v Steve Davis, 1985 UK Championship final
A former world No. 7, Thorne became only the third player to reach over 100 centuries in the sport and made a 147 break during the 1987 UK Championship, contributing to his legend as the sport's self-styled 'Mr Maximum'.
Thorne won the Mercantile Credit Classic in 1985 with a 13-8 win over 1980 world champion Cliff Thorburn in the final.
But a relatively simple missed frame-ball blue to left middle leading Steve Davis 13-8 and 59-50 in the 1985 UK Championship final haunted the rest of his career when he looked on the cusp of a 14-8 lead at the Preston Guild Hall.
Davis recovered to win the final 16-14 in one of the all-time classic UK title matches, with the Leicester man left feeling blue in more ways than one.
”I hit the blue almost without thinking,” said Thorne.
”The delivery felt fine. There was no hint of twitching and I didn’t get a bad contact.
"I was trying to roll the cue ball through to the pink so so I stunned it to save me a walk around the table. Oh no, the blue was jawed!”
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5. Stephen Hendry v Mark Williams, 1998 Masters final
This was a bit like the Taylor-Davis 1985 world final transported to London.
Mark Williams trailed Hendry 5-2 and 9-7 in the 1998 Masters final yet somehow emerged a 10-9 winner by potting the final black at the Wembley Conference Centre. It was the only time he led in a match that denied Hendry the chance to collect his seventh Masters title.
Hendry would gain a measure of revenge with his 18-11 win over Williams in the World Championship final a year later that saw him snare a record seventh Crucible title in the modern era, but this one must have stung and then some having outscored his Welsh opponent for large swathes of the final.
Williams scrambled superbly to force the decider before keeping his cool to extend the final to a re-spotted black.
A double attempt on the final ball narrowly failed to drop before a long pot wriggled in the jaws as the black fell tantalisingly over a middle pocket.
The only problem for Hendry was the white heading for the opposite cushion denying him full control of the cue ball as he confronted a slow roll across the nap of the table for victory.
A straight shot with such precision was a horrid pressurised predicament as the white floated narrowly off line with the black rebounding off a jaw to set up Williams for an easy finish.
He duly sunk the straight black to green bag before jumping in the air to the delight of the Wembley crowd.
6. Judd Trump v Neil Robertson, 2020 UK Championship final
World No. 1 Judd Trump required only two balls for victory, but somehow missed a routine pink with the black there for the potting as Robertson pounced to hole the penultimate ball for glory after a fierce 66-minute joust.
”It was an epic battle. It's tough to take and I bottled it really. I was under pressure and ended up messing up,” admitted the 2019 world champion.
"I would never have missed from there normally but the whole length of the frame got to me, as well as the pressure, and I was trying too hard.
"It would have made for good viewing, but it's devastating for me."
7. Mike Hallett v Stephen Hendry, 1991 Masters final
Mike Hallett was whitewashed 9-0 by Steve Davis in the 1988 Masters, but it is fair to say his 9-8 loss to Hendry would hurt a whole lot more.
Hallett. the winner of the 1989 Hong Kong Open, had led Hendry 7-0 and 8-2, playing some bullish and brilliant snooker before a packed Wembley Conference Centre.
A missed pink using the rest on the brink of a 9-3 victory was all down to pressure of the moment.
As it was, Hendry would win the final seven frames to complete a victory that left his opponent in a state of shock.
After the final, the Grimsby professional discovered his house had been burgled.
Not exactly the greatest of days for the former world No. 6.
8. Ken Doherty v Matthew Stevens, 2000 Masters final
The 1997 world champion made his only competitive maximum during the 2012 Paul Hunter Classic, but is remembered for infamously missing the last black during a 10-8 defeat by Matthew Stevens in the 2000 Masters final.
Doherty trailed 9-5 at the old Wembley Conference Centre when he set off on his maximum attempt, but agonisingly failed to slot the black off the spot as the prize of an ÂŁ80,000 sports car disappeared on the stroke of one bad shot.
Doherty collected the ÂŁ19,000 top break prize for his memorable 140 22 years ago, but the memory of his near-miss remains vivid.
9. Tony Knowles v Cliff Thorburn, 1983 World Championship semi-final
Knowles is perhaps most famously celebrated for thumping defending champion Steve Davis 10-1 in the first round of the World Championship in 1982.
The Bolton potter, who turned 70 last year, spent 20 years on tour between 1980 and 2001, a period in which he reached the semi-finals of the World Championship three times, in 1983, 1985 and 1986.
His defeat to Thorburn in the 1983 semi-finals remains a source of discomfort after he missed a pink off the spot leading 15-13, 58-57 and seemingly on the verge of a final rematch with Davis.
But he saw the pink wriggle agonisingly in the jaws as Thorburn mopped up the last two balls and final three frames for an epic 16-15 victory.
10. Cao Yupeng v Neil Robertson, 2017 Scottish Open final
Robertson won the final five frames to complete an astonishing 9-8 victory in the 2017 Scottish Open final as a nervy Cao Yupeng blew up on the cusp of victory at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow.
Going into the penultimate frame world number 67, Cao just needed a black to win his first professional title in his first final having seen an 8-4 lead cut to 8-7, but saw the match ball hang in the jaws.
1986 world champion Joe Johnson on comms was certain Cao couldn't miss, but anything can be missed at any time in snooker.
"He was so unlucky when he pots the pink to get on the black," said Robertson, who celebrated winning a fourth title in Scotland.
"Everyone behind the shot have screamed out 'yes', but all of sudden it holds up and rattles in the jaw six or seven times.
"I've never experienced anything like that before in a match of that magnitude."
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