Kurt Maflin

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Kurt Maflin

Born	August 8, 1983 (1983-08-08) (age 24)
Professional	2001–
2008/09 ranking	82
Highest break	117

Kurt Maflin (born 8 August 1983 in South East London, England), is an internationally notable English amateur snooker player, living in and representing Norway.

[edit] Career

Maflin won the gold medal at the 2006 IBSF World Championships in Amman, Jordan, beating Daniel Ward 11-8 in the final. On his way to victory, Maflin won 15 consecutive matches.

He began playing snooker at the age of four, achieving a high break of 25 by the time he was five. He increased his time spent at the table practicing. As a rated top junior player, Kurt represented his country (England) in the 1999 Home International series in Prestatyn, North Wales, where England were victorious.

After appearing in the Finals of the English National Championships in the Under-13 and Under-15 categories, he went on to become the first person to retain the English Under-17 national title (once held by Paul Hunter) in 2000 after winning it for the first time in 1999.

When aged 14, Maflin was invited, on behalf of TV Times magazine, to team up with former World Champion Dennis Taylor to raise money for the Leukaemia Research Fund at the 1998 Liverpool Victoria Charity Challenge event. After meeting the world's top players, Kurt and Dennis managed to win £4,300 for the charity, playing 'Pounds for Points'.

Maflin also appeared twice on the BBC1's popular snooker game show series Junior Big Break: Stars of the Future in 1997, and winning the contestant the grand prize of a holiday in 1998. In 2001 Maflin reached the final of the English Open Championship and was runner-up in the European Championship Final staged in Riga, Latvia. In the same year he won his place on World Snooker's Main Tour becoming the second youngest professional snooker player in the world at the time. He dropped off the tour and moved to Norway with his partner Anita Rizutti, only returning to serious competition for the 2006 Challenge Tour. He won this to return to the Main Tour for 2007/2008. He had a great run in the Masters qualifying tournament, beating Jimmy White to reach the final before losing out on a wild card place in the event to Barry Hawkins