Martin Gould at the 2011 Paul Hunter Classic |
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| Born | 14 September 1981 Pinner, London |
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| Sport country | England |
| Nickname | The Pinner Potter |
| Professional | 2003–2004, 2007 – |
| Highest ranking | 12 (4 months) |
| Current ranking | 12 |
| Highest <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">break</dfn> | 139 (PTC Event 11 - 2011) |
| Best ranking finish | Final (2011 PTC Finals) |
Martin Gould (born 14 September 1981) is an English professional snooker player from Pinner in the London Borough of Harrow. He practises at the Whetstone Snooker Club. He works part-time as a debt collector, where he picked up his nickname "Solid Gould".
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In 2002, Gould won his first English Amateur Championship, beating Craig Taylor in the final. Gould reached the semi-finals of the 2002 European Championship.
Gould enjoyed a good run in the qualification for the 2003 World Championship, winning 8 matches, beating Alain Robidoux and Stephen Maguire. Gould's campaign ended when he lost to Patrick Wallace. However, he dropped off the Main Tour after this sole season, and barely played for the next four years.
Gould won his second English Amateur Championship in 2007, beating David Lilley 8–7.
In 2007–08 he returned to the Main Tour. He reached the last 32 of the Northern Ireland Trophy, beating Matthew Stevens 5–4 from 3–0 down in the last 48. He also won multiple qualifying matches at both the UK Championship and World Championship qualifying events, although he did not ultimately qualify for either event. He finished the season inside the top 64.
Gould came through qualifying for the 2008 Maplin UK Championship, beating Supoj Saenla 9–1, Tom Ford 9–6, and in the final qualifying round Gould overturned a 5 – 2 deficit to overcome Dominic Dale 9–6. In the first round of the Maplin UK Championship, Gould faced eventual champion Shaun Murphy, Murphy did go 7–3 ahead before Gould rattled off four frames in a row to bring the score back to 7–7, but Murphy held on to seal a 9–7 victory. Gould then also reached the last 16 of a ranking event for the first time, at the 2009 Welsh Open, beating Stephen Hendry 5 – 3 in the last 32. Solid qualifying results in the remainder of the season have helped him into the top 48 in the world rankings for 2009/10. This means Gould will only have to win two matches to qualify for events. In the 2010 World Championship qualifying, Gould defeated Rodney Goggins 10–7, David Gilbert 10–8 and former top 16 player Matthew Stevens 10–4 to qualify for the World Championship, where he lost in the first round. However, he returned to the Crucible the following year and defeated Marco Fu 10–9 in the first round. In the second round he led Neil Robertson 6–0, 11–5 and 12–10, showing arguably his best snooker ever, before ultimately losing 13–12.[1] Robertson went on to win the championship that year.
Gould had a strong start to the 2010/11 season, reaching the last 16 of the Shanghai Masters after beating Stephen Hendry 5–3, and scored his best career result at the World Open, reaching the quarter-finals, where he lost 1–3 to Peter Ebdon. Gould reached the final of the PTC in March 2011, to be beaten 4–0 by Shaun Murphy. Gould once again qualified for the World Championship, and defeated Marco Fu 10–8 in a repeat of the previous year's first round match. Gould was then defeated by reigning China Open champion and eventual World Championship runner-up, Judd Trump.
In 2011 Gould won the Masters of the varient form of the game Power Snooker, beating reigning champion Ronnie O'Sullivan in the final[2]. He also entered the world's elite top 16 for the first time. Gould finished 2011 by reaching the final of the eleventh event of the PTC, where he lost to Tom Ford 3-4.[3]