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David Gray (snooker player)

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David Gray
Born (1979-02-09) 9 February 1979 (age 45)
Lower Morden, London, England
Sport country England
NicknameCasper[1]
Professional1996–2010
Highest ranking12 (2003/04)
Maximum breaks2
Tournament wins
Ranking1

David Gray (born 9 February 1979) is an English former professional snooker player from London.

Gray turned professional in 1996 after becoming the youngest ever winner of the prestigious English Amateur Championship. He went on to win the 2003 Scottish Open, break into the top 16 in the world rankings and reach the final of the 2004 UK Championship (where he made his first of two competitive maximums) - despite these successes early in his career, his form declined until he eventually dropped off the tour in 2010 aged just 31.

Career

[edit]

Gray turned professional in 1996, after becoming the youngest winner of the English amateur title in 1995. Gray first qualified for the World Championship aged 19 in 1998 where he narrowly lost in round one to Alan McManus.[2] He first demonstrated his potential by beating future seven-time World Champion Ronnie O'Sullivan 10–9 in the first round of the 2000 World Championship, a match in which O'Sullivan scored five centuries. However, he was unable to repeat this success in the second round and lost 1–13 to Dominic Dale, scoring just 208 points, a record low for a best-of-25 match.

After winning the non-ranking 1998 Benson & Hedges Championship and following his World Championship performance in 2000, Gray was a consistent tournament quarter-finalist over the next eighteen months, but did not reach his first ranking final until the 2002 Scottish Open. In this tournament, Gray eliminated defending champion Peter Ebdon 6–3 in the semi-finals, having already taken out Stephen Hendry and John Higgins. Stephen Lee eventually defeated Gray in the final, 9–2. However, in the same tournament a year later, Gray again eliminated Higgins and Hendry en route to the final, and this time won the event, defeating newcomer (and another eventual world champion) Mark Selby 9–7.

Although Gray was unable to qualify for the 2003 World Championship, his success at the 2003 Scottish Open (his only ranking tournament win) saw him break into the top 16 in the 2003/2004 world rankings, where he remained through 2005/2006. In the 2004 World Championship, he advanced to the quarter-finals, losing 13–9 to Graeme Dott. This performance helped him to no. 12 in the 2004/2005 world rankings (to date, his best-ever position).

On 28 November 2004 he reached his third – and to date, latest – ranking final in the UK Championship. He lost 10–1 to Stephen Maguire in the final. It was during this tournament that Gray scored his first maximum break[3] – the 50th ever made in professional play – in the fifth frame of his last-32 match against Mark Selby (whom he had defeated in the 2003 Scottish Open final). His semi-final against Joe Perry was particularly memorable as Perry appeared to have won the match 9-7 by potting a colour leaving Gray requiring a snooker, but Perry himself was snookered on the next red, failed to hit it, and didn't score another point as Gray cleared the table then hit a 139 total clearance in the deciding frame.

Gray defeated Jimmy White (his long-time practice partner)[4] 10–5 at the 2006 World Championship, but in the second round Peter Ebdon beat Gray 13–2 with a session to spare, making Gray one of the few players to have lost two best-of-25-frame matches in a World Championship so emphatically. Gray never advanced beyond the quarter-finals in a World Championship.

In the 2006 Grand Prix, he advanced from the group stage (in which the world's top 32 plus sixteen qualifiers are split into groups of six, who play each other round-robin with the two most successful players in each group progressing), before losing 2–5 to O'Sullivan in the last 16. He did not qualify for the 2007 World Championship, losing to 1991 winner John Parrott, and dropped out of the top 32 in the 2007/2008 rankings. A lack of success continued into the next season, with defeat to Liu Chuang in World Championship qualifying ensuring that he would be outside the top 40 of the rankings for the following year.

Gray fell off the circuit after the 2008–09 season but a World Snooker wildcard was awarded to him to allow him to remain on tour for the 2009–10 season.

After a disappointing 2009/2010 season he finished 77th for the 2010/2011 season and on 28 May 2011 Gray failed to qualify for the professional tour for the next season losing in the Q school qualifying stages.

After yet another poor performance in the Q school stages in May 2012 also saw him fail to qualify for the 2012/2013 professional tour.

The same was to follow in May 2013, as another poor performance in the Q School qualifying rounds led to disappointment, as he failed to qualify for the 2013/2014 tour. He did however enter himself into the first tournament of the season; the Bulgaria Open and was drawn against Gerard Greene in the last 128, however he withdrew from the tournament before it started and has not played another match since.

Personal life

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On 7 October 2009, whilst on holiday in Thailand, Gray was found unconscious and rushed to hospital after blacking out. He was rescued by paramedics after being found collapsed and wearing only his underpants in a grove in the Thai holiday resort of Pattaya. He blacked out after drinking with friends and woke to find himself on a trolley in the Banglamung Hospital. 110sport Group chairman Lee Doyle said he will offer every assistance to help Gray.[5][6][7]

Performance and rankings timeline

[edit]
Tournament 1996/
97 		1997/
98 		1998/
99 		1999/
00 		2000/
01 		2001/
02 		2002/
03 		2003/
04 		2004/
05 		2005/
06 		2006/
07 		2007/
08 		2008/
09 		2009/
10
Ranking[8][nb 1] [nb 2] 152 61 60 52 30 19 12 14 23 23 35 49 65
Ranking tournaments
Shanghai Masters Tournament Not Held LQ LQ LQ
Grand Prix[nb 3] LQ 1R 1R LQ LQ 2R QF 2R 2R QF 2R LQ LQ LQ
UK Championship 2R 1R 1R 1R 2R 1R 2R 2R F 1R 2R LQ LQ LQ
Welsh Open LQ LQ LQ 1R 1R LQ 1R 2R 3R 1R 1R LQ LQ LQ
China Open[nb 4] NH NR LQ LQ 1R LQ Not Held 1R 1R LQ LQ WR LQ
World Championship LQ 1R LQ 2R LQ 1R LQ QF 1R 2R LQ LQ LQ LQ
Non-ranking tournaments
The Masters LQ LQ WR LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R 1R LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ
Former ranking tournaments
Asian Classic LQ Tournament Not Held
German Open 2R LQ NR Tournament Not Held
Malta Grand Prix Non-Ranking Event 1R NR Tournament Not Held
Thailand Masters[nb 5] LQ 1R LQ LQ LQ 1R NR Not Held NR Not Held
Scottish Open[nb 6] LQ 1R LQ LQ 2R F W 2R Tournament Not Held
British Open LQ 1R LQ LQ 2R 2R 2R 3R 2R Tournament Not Held
Irish Masters Non-Ranking Event LQ 2R 1R NH NR Not Held
Malta Cup[nb 7] LQ NH LQ Not Held 1R 1R 2R 1R LQ LQ NR Not Held
Northern Ireland Trophy Tournament Not Held NR 1R 2R 1R NH
Bahrain Championship Tournament Not Held LQ NH
Former non-ranking tournaments
Scottish Masters A A A A LQ LQ LQ Tournament Not Held
Masters Qualifying Event[nb 8] 1R 4R W 2R QF 1R 2R NH A 2R SF 2R 3R QF
NH / Not Held event was not held.
NR / Non-Ranking Event event is/was no longer a ranking event.
R / Ranking Event event is/was a ranking event.
MR / Minor-Ranking Event event is/was a minor-ranking event.
  1. ^ From the 2010/2011 season it shows the ranking at the beginning of the season.
  2. ^ New players on the Main Tour don't have a ranking.
  3. ^ The event also ran under the name LG Cup (2001/2002–2003/2004)
  4. ^ The event ran under different name as China International (1997/1998–1998/1999)
  5. ^ The event also ran under the name Thailand Open (1996/1997)
  6. ^ The event also ran under the names International Open (1996/1997) and Players Championship (2003/2004)
  7. ^ The event also ran as the European Open (1996/1997 and 2001/2002–2003/2004) and Irish Open (1998/1999)
  8. ^ The event also ran as the Benson & Hedges Championship (1996/1997-2002/2003

Career finals

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Ranking finals: 3 (1 title)

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Legend
UK Championship (0–1)
Other (1–1)
Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final Score
Runner-up 1. 2002 Scottish Open England Stephen Lee 2–9
Winner 1. 2003 Scottish Open England Mark Selby 9–7
Runner-up 2. 2004 UK Championship Scotland Stephen Maguire 1–10

Non-ranking finals: 2 (2 titles)

[edit]
Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final Score
Winner 1. 1996 Merseyside Professional Championship England Paul Sweeny 5–2[9]
Winner 2. 1998 Benson & Hedges Championship England Dave Harold 9–6

Amateur finals: 5 (3 titles)

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Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final Score
Runner-up 1. 1994 IBSF World Under-21 Championship Australia Quinten Hann 10–11
Winner 1. 1995 English Amateur Championship England Paul Hunter 8–7
Runner-up 2. 1995 EBSA European Championship England David Lilley 7–8
Winner 2. 2013 Snookerbacker Classic 2013 - Qualifier 6 - Gloucester England Anthony Harris 3–1
Winner 3. 2013 Snookerbacker Classic 2013 - Grand Finals England Kyren Wilson 4–2

References

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  1. ^ "Birthdays in sport on February 9". onthisday.com. Archived from the original on 19 May 2023. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
  2. ^ Everton, Clive (21 April 1998). "Davis scrapes through". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 27 September 2023. Retrieved 27 September 2023.
  3. ^ Yahoo! Sport. 2009. David Gray. [Online] Yahoo! UK (Updated 2010) Available at: http://uk.yahoo.eurosport.com/snooker/person_prs28975.shtml Archived 26 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine [Retrieved 15 February 2010].
  4. ^ Player profile on World Snooker
  5. ^ "Tourist Mystery". Pattaya People Radio. 8 October 2009. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  6. ^ "Gray Day For David". Global Snooker. 11 October 2009. Archived from the original on 15 October 2009.
  7. ^ "David Gray Statement". Snooker Scene Blog. 10 October 2009. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  8. ^ "Ranking History". Snooker.org. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  9. ^ Turner, Chris. "Merseyside Professional Championship". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 16 February 2012. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
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