Pro Snooker Blog

Name: Barry Pinches

DOB: July 13th, 1970

Nationality: English

Turned Pro: 1989

Highest Ranking: #18 (2005/6)

Current Ranking: #57

Highest Break: 147 (2000 Welsh Open)

Career Highlights: 2007 German Open Champion, 2004 World Championship Last 16, 2003 UK Championship Quarter Final

Website: http://www.sightrightuk.com/

Early career

Another strong amateur in the late 1980’s, Barry won the British under-19 Championship and the English Amateur Championship, as well as reaching the World Amateur final before he turned professional in 1989.

Once he did so however, aside from an appearance at the final stages of the World Championship in 1991 where he lost in the first round to former champion Terry Griffiths, wins were hard to come by for Barry. Indeed during the mid-1990’s he actually lost his place on the main tour, though he soon made it back on and continued to struggle down around the 100 mark.

Late bloom

Entering his mid-thirties however, there were signs of improvement as between 2002-3, Barry reached the last 32 of six tournaments, as well as making the final qualifying round of the 2003 World Championship.

As a result of this form, Barry was now up to a career high of 36 coming into 2003/4 and he managed to go even further at the UK Championship when he made his first (and so far only), ranking event quarter-final. Having defeated Marco Fu, Graeme Dott and Stephen Lee though, seven times world champion Stephen Hendry brought his run to an end with a 9-3 win.

Crucible clash with Hendry

The two were to meet again that year however as Barry not only managed to qualify again for the final stages of the World Championship at the Crucible (13 years after his first visit, an record matched only by Jamie Burnett in 2009), but also defeated Jimmy White in the first round to set up the rematch with Hendry.

This time round it was to be much closer and at one stage Barry looked to be going into a 9-7 lead at the end of the second session before Hendry produced a sensational clearance to make it 8-8. Pinches could have folded at this point but instead won three of the next four frames to lead the match 11-9. Hendry though showed his class and eventually won it 13-12 in a deciding frame.

Nevertheless, Barry had at least done enough to move up into the top 32 for the first time at 21st in the rankings and another good season in 2004/5 saw him move up to 18th, his highest position to date.

Decline and Subsequent Revival

After defeat to Ken Doherty at the 2005 World Championship however, Barry’s form began to dip again and in 2006/7 he won only a single match, sending him plummeting back down to 56th position. 2007/8 was a little better though and he managed to win his opening match in all but one event, lifting him up six positions to number 50. Furthermore he managed to win the 2007 German Open in Furth, beating Neil Robertson and Ken Doherty along the way.

2008/9

Having had such a consistent season previously, the 2008/9 campaign did not go to plan for Barry as he struggled to win matches consistently. He did have a terrific run in the Welsh Open where he defeated Judd Trump and Jamie Cope to qualify for the TV stages, as well as a last 16 showing in Bahrain, but otherwise it was a season littered with round one exits which ended with him dropping to 52 in the rankings.

He was unfortunate to run into an inspired performance from Matt Couch at the UK Championship and it was a similar story against Lee Spick at the season-ending World Championship. Hopefully he will have a better year next year because having finished this season 66th on the one-year list, he needs to get some more points on the board…

2009/10

Barry’s 2009/10 campaign got off to a poor start as he went down 5-4 to Simon Bedford in the Shanghai Masters qualifiers and he was to suffer another narrow defeat in the UK qualifiers, this time losing 9-7 to Craig Steadman.

Sandwiched in between these two events however was a crucial run at the Grand Prix which saw him qualify for the venue stage with victories over Daniel Wells, Jimmy Michie and Michael Holt. Just as in the Welsh Open earlier in the year he came up against Shaun Murphy but this time it was to be Barry who came out on top, a 5-4 winner to move into the last 16. Though his challenge was ended there by Joe Perry, the 2660 points gained were to prove important in his battle to retain his tour status for another year.

The second half of the season did not see Barry qualify for another venue, but importantly he was able to win his opening match in each of the three tournaments staged which ultimately saw him comfortably retain his main tour status. Finishing with almost 1,500 points more than he had earned in 2008/9, Barry is well set to fight for a top 48 place during 2010/11 if he can maintain that level of consistency.

Tournament Victories:

Minor Ranking Event wins (1)

Non-Ranking Event wins (1)