Barry Hawkins

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Barry Hawkins

Born	April 23, 1979 (1979-04-23) (age 29), Kent
Nationality	England
Nickname(s)	Hawkeye^{[citation needed]}
Professional	1996–
Highest ranking	#12 (2006/2007)
2008/09 ranking	#26
Career winnings	GB£223,800 (up to start of 2006/7 season)
Highest break	145 (2005 Grand Prix)
Tournament wins
Non-ranking	1

Barry Hawkins (born 23 April 1979, Kent, England) is an English professional snooker player.

1 Career
2 Tournement wins
- 2.1 Non ranking
3 References

[edit] Career

Before taking up snooker professionally he was an office clerk.

He reached the Top 32 in the rankings in 2004/2005, having reached the semi-finals of 2005's Welsh Open, as well as the last sixteen of three other tournaments.

In 2005/2006, he reached the semi-finals of the Grand Prix [1] and the Welsh Open again, and also beat the high-ranked Ding Junhui to qualify for the World Championship for the first time [2]. This cemented Hawkins' place in the Top 16 of the rankings for the 2006/2007 season.

At the World Championship in Sheffield, however, Barry faced former Champion Ken Doherty in the first round, and in the intimidating Crucible Theatre lost 10-1. He told the BBC that "I just couldn't perform and I don't know why... I'm gutted after such a good season to have performed like that." [3]

The 2006/2007 season saw Hawkins disappointed following two strong seasons. He reached the final of the non-ranking Kilkenny Irish Masters [4], however his only run past the last 16 in a ranking event was at the China Open, when he reached the semi-finals, again beating Ding along the way. A first-round defeat to Fergal O'Brien at the World Championship [5] cost him his Top 16 place, and left him outside the Top 32 on the single-year rankings.

Early in the 2007/2008 season, Hawkins won the qualifying tournament for the 2008 Masters, beating Kurt Maflin [6]. He won five other matches, also beating top-32 players Nigel Bond and Jamie Cope. He also reached the last 16 at the Grand Prix [7], UK Championship and China Open.

So far, Hawkins's record at the World Championship has been relatively miserable. As well as the aforementioned one-sided defeat to Doherty, Hawkins lost in the first round the following two years as well, to O'Brien and Ali Carter respectively. On both occasions, Barry was defeated 10-9 having recovered from 9-6 behind. It means that he has a win/loss record at the Crucible of 0-3.

Although Hawkins plays left-handed, he plays shots requiring a rest with his right hand, and is actually right-handed outside of snooker.