| Born | 13 July 1970 Catton, Norwich |
|---|---|
| Sport country | England |
| Nickname | The Canarian |
| Professional | 1989– |
| Highest ranking | 18 (05/06) |
| Current ranking | 54 |
| Career winnings | GB£329,685[1] |
| Highest <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">break</dfn> | 147 – 2000 Welsh Open [1] |
| Century breaks | 108 |
| Best ranking finish | Quarter-finals: 2003 UK Championship, 2005 Grand Prix |
| Tournament wins | |
| Minor-ranking | 1 |
Barry Pinches (born 13 July 1970 in Catton, Norwich) is an English professional snooker player, recognisable for his bright and flamboyant waistcoats, which usually feature the yellow and green colours of Norwich City F.C.. He is a former top 32 player and ranking-event quarter-finalist. He has compiled over 100 century breaks in his career, becoming the 33rd player to have compiled at least a century of centuries.[2]
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He won the English Amateur Championship in 1988, enabling him to turn professional in 1989. He is coached by Stephen Feeney.
After a largely unsuccessful start to his career, he hit good form for a while in the 2000s.[3] He defeated Jimmy White 10–8 in the 2004 World Championship, in a match which over-ran and had to be completed after other matches,[4] then led Stephen Hendry 11–9 before losing 12–13 and has lost in the first round twice more – the 13-year gap between his first two Crucible appearances (1991–2004) is an all-time record. In his first appearance at the Crucible, in 1991 he lost 3–10 to Terry Griffiths. His best ranking tournament run to date, was in the 2003 UK Championship, where he reached the quarter-finals with victories over Marco Fu, Graeme Dott and Stephen Lee, before Stephen Hendry ended his run.
At one point he was established in the world's top 32, and provisionally 14 at one point – advancing 82–56–36–21 in the rankings over a strong sequence of seasons up to 2003/2004. However, he dropped out of the top 32 two years later, and then won only one knock-out match in 2006/2007, dropping to number #56. He attributed this loss of form to attempting to change his cue action.[5] However, he won an invitational event that featured many top players, the 2007 Paul Hunter Classic that August, beating Neil Robertson and Ken Doherty en route.[6] He also showed a return to form in the 2008 China Open by reaching the last 16, beating the defending champion, Graeme Dott 5–1 in the process, before going down by the same scoreline to Nigel Bond, who also beat him 7–10 in the final qualifying round of the 2008 World Championship.[7] The 2008/2009 season was less successful for him however.
After reaching the final of Event 2 of the Players Tour Championship where he lost 3–4 to Mark Selby he went one better in Event 4 beating Mark Williams 4–1 and Ronnie O'Sullivan 4–3 in the semi-final and final respectively to record the best win of his career to date.
Pinches narrowly missed out on a maximum 147 break at Event 2 of the Players Tour Championship in Gloucester in the 2011/12 season, making it to the final black[8].[9]