Barry Pinches

Barry Pinches
Born (1970-07-13) 13 July 1970
Catton, Norwich
Sport country  England
Nickname The Canarian
Professional 1989–1997, 1998–
Highest ranking 18 (2005/2006)
Current ranking 80 (as of 1 December 2015)
Career winnings £457,293[1]
Highest break 147 (2000 Welsh Open Qualifying)
Century breaks 139[2]
Best ranking finish Quarter-final (2003 UK Championship, 2005 Grand Prix)
Tournament wins
Minor-ranking 1
Non-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 done so.[3]

Career

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.[4] He defeated Jimmy White 10–8 in the 2004 World Championship, in a match which overran and had to be completed after other matches,[5] 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.[6] 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.[7] 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.[8] 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.

In the 2011/2012 season Pinches narrowly missed out on a maximum 147 break at Event 2 of the Players Tour Championship in Gloucester, making it to the final black.[9][10] He would later finish the season ranked world number 64, grabbing the final spot on offer through the world rankings to play in the 2012/2013 season. He fell 23 places in the rankings during the season – the most of anyone on the snooker tour.[11]

Pinches won two matches but then lost in the final round in qualifying for the first three ranking events of the season.[12] He made it to the main draw at the next event, the 2012 International Championship, thanks to wins over Daniel Wells, Xiao Guodong and Joe Perry.[12] He had to play in a wildcard round once at the venue in Chengdu, China, and lost 5–6 to Lu Ning.[13] This was the furthest Pinches got in a ranking event this season, with it coming to an end when he was defeated 9–10 by Liam Highfield in the second round of World Championship Qualifying.[14] He finished the year ranked world number 62.[15]

Pinches qualified for the 2013 Indian Open, the fourth ranking event of the 2013/2014 season with a 4–1 victory over Chris Wakelin. He almost pulled off a huge shock in the first round as he led Ding Junhui 3–2, but was beaten 4–3.[16] Pinches also reached the main draw of the World Open and China Open but lost in the first round both times.[17] Due to all 128 players on the tour earning a place in the first round of the Welsh Open, Pinches did not need to qualify and beat Nigel Bond 4–1, to set up a second round meeting with Ronnie O'Sullivan. Pinches stated before the match that he would stick to his percentage game with a defensive approach as he has always played the same no matter who the opponent is and he was defeated 4–1.[18] Pinches had a consistent season in the European Tour events with his deepest runs being last 16 defeats at the Kay Suzanne Memorial Cup and Gdynia Open which saw him finish 49th on the Order of Merit.[19] He dropped out of the top 64 in the rankings during the season as he ended it at number 76, but his European Tour results earned him a place on the tour for the 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 seasons as the sixth highest non-qualified player.[20]

He edged out Peter Ebdon 5–4 to qualify for the 2014 Wuxi Classic, but lost 5–1 to Yan Bingtao in the first round. Pinches won three games to play in the final qualifying round for the Australian Goldfields Open where he lost 5–3 to Ebdon. He qualified for the International Championship and was beaten 6–2 by Robert Milkins in the opening round.[21] Pinches' sole win in a ranking event this season came at the Welsh Open by defeating Jimmy White 4–3, but he was knocked out 4–2 by home favourite Mark Williams in the second round.[22]

Career finals

Minor-ranking event finals: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

Outcome Year Championship Opponent in the final Score
Runner-up 2010 PTC 2010/2011 - Event 2 England Mark Selby 3–4
Winner 2010 PTC 2010/2011 - Event 4 England Ronnie O'Sullivan 4–3

Pro-am: 1 (1 title)

Outcome Year Championship Opponent in the final Score
Winner 2007 Paul Hunter Classic Republic of Ireland Ken Doherty 4–0

References

  1. ↑ "Career-total Statistics for Barry Pinches - Professional". CueTracker Snooker Results & Statistics Database. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
  2. ↑ "Centuries". Pro Snooker Blog. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  3. ↑ "Chris Turners Snooker Archive – Top Century Makers". 2008. Archived from the original on 4 February 2008. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
  4. ↑ "Profile on Sporting Life". Sporting Life. 2005. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011. Retrieved 29 March 2008.
  5. ↑ "White falls to Pinches". BBC. 20 April 2004. Retrieved 5 February 2008.
  6. ↑ Archived 11 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ↑ "Barry pinches German Open". Yahoo!. 2007. Archived from the original on 9 September 2007. Retrieved 29 March 2008.
  8. ↑ "Pinches crashes out of China Open". BBC. 27 March 2008. Retrieved 29 March 2008.
  9. ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQnkLuncSwE
  10. ↑ "Pinches On Top In PTC". Global Snooker. Cuefactor Limited. Archived from the original on 17 August 2010. Retrieved 16 August 2010.
  11. ↑ "Official World Ranking List for the 2012/2013 Season" (PDF). Retrieved 11 May 2012.
  12. 1 2 "Barry Pinches 2012/2013". Snooker.org. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  13. ↑ "International Championship 2012: schedule and results". BBC Sport. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  14. ↑ "Betfair World Championship Qualifiers". Snooker.org. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
  15. ↑ "Official World Snooker Ranking List For The 2013/2014 Season" (PDF). World Snooker. Retrieved 24 May 2013.
  16. ↑ "Higgins beats Walker in Indian Open Snooker". The Hindu. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  17. ↑ "Barry Pinches 2013/2014". Snooker.org. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  18. ↑ "Snooker - O'Sullivan coasts into Welsh Open last 32 with win over Pinches". Eurosport. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  19. ↑ "European Order of Merit 2013/2014". Snooker.org. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  20. ↑ "World Snooker Rankings After the 2014 World Championship" (PDF). World Snooker. Retrieved 9 May 2014.
  21. ↑ "Barry Pinches 2014/2015". Snooker.org. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  22. ↑ "Mark Williams burns the midnight oil to set up all-Welsh clash". South Wales Argus. Retrieved 8 April 2015.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, January 07, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.