Peter Ebdon

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Peter Ebdon
Born	August 27, 1970 (age 36)
Nationality	British
Nickname(s)	Ebbo the Great
Professional	1991–
Highest ranking	3 (1996/97 and 2002/03)
2006/07 ranking	7
Tournament wins
Ranking events	6
Non-ranking events	2
World Champion	2002

Peter Ebdon (born August 27, 1970) is an English professional snooker player. He was born in Kettering and lived in Wellingborough, going to Highbury Grove School. He lived in Islington, north London, until he was 18. He began playing snooker at the age of 14.

Ebdon turned professional in 1991, and climbed the rankings rapidly to reach the number three spot in 1996. His best achievement was his 18-17 victory against Stephen Hendry in the 2002 world championship - perhaps one of the best world finals ever.

Peter previously reached the final of the tournament in 1996 which he lost 18-12 to Hendry, and was also runner-up at the 2006 event to Graeme Dott, coming back from eight frames down with eleven to play to lose by just four frames. In 2006 he again reached the final, to play Graeme Dott, where his gritty but often slow performance was widely criticised as boring. Most of the headline-seeking journalists overlooked how tough his semi-final with Marco Fu had been, or that his highest break on the first day was 89 compared to Dott's 62. He resumed at 15-7 down for the final session, before winning 6 successive frames to close back in, before Dott won 18-14.

Peter Ebdon is one of the handful of players to have compiled 2 competitive maximums. He has also compiled 232 competitive centuries during his career. During the 2006 World Championships, Peter almost made a maximum 147 break on three occasions, just failing towards the end of each break. The only century break in the final match in 2006 against Graeme Dott was his in the 23rd frame.

Peter is an extremely focused individual and has been criticised for his energetic celebrations after winning matches. He has gathered a lot of public support as a result of these demonstrations of emotion - a rare attribute in the game's top ranking players. However, since one particularly exuberant outburst ^[1] - after potting the match ball, he repeatedly fisted the air and screamed "Come on!" at the top of his voice - during a match with Stephen Lee during the 2001 World Championship, he has toned down his celebrations significantly.

Peter's game is unorthodox in comparison with other top players. He doesn't always see the textbook shot - instead he tends to make it difficult for himself with sometimes bizarre shot selections. However, Peter is believed to be one of the best shot makers in the history of the game - possibly only second to Alex Higgins. Indeed there are few players who can play the "power screw-back" as well as Ebdon.

Over the past three or four years, his matchplay has slowed down considerably. His shot times have slipped from around 23 seconds to over 30 seconds and this has brought some criticism, particularly his match against Ronnie O'Sullivan in the 2005 World Championship, in which he took 5 minutes to complete a break of 12 ^[2]. These ponderous performances, though lacking free flowing breaks, are often used to break his opponent mentally.

Along with Mark Williams, Ebdon is one of the few professional snooker players to be colour blind. He stated in an interview with the BBC, "There have been plenty of times in the past when I potted the brown instead of the red and vice-versa." ^[3]

Outside of snooker, Ebdon has interests in breeding racehorses, fine wines, swimming and music. He learned the oboe whilst at school, plays the piano and enjoys listening to classical music as well as having sung on two pop singles (one of which being a cover of the David Cassidy song I am a Clown^[4]). He reportedly swims one mile a day in order to condition himself for snooker. He is a family man, and is married to Deborah, and they have four children. In 2005, he emigrated with his family to Dubai, and has stated that he has no desire to return to the UK, admitting to the BBC that tax exemption was one reason, also citing low crime rates and good weather conditions.