Jimmy Michie (pronounced "Mickey"; born 4 August 1971) is an English former professional

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, billiards table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets: one at each corner and ...

player from

Pontefract Pontefract is a historic market town in the City of Wakefield, a metropolitan district in West Yorkshire, England. It lies to the east of Wakefield and south of Castleford. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is one of the ...

, Yorkshire, and a two-time

WPBSA The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) is the governing body of professional snooker and English billiards. It is headquartered in Bristol, England. Founded as the Professional Billiard Players Association (PBPA) in ...

ranking tournament semi-finalist, who has also reached the

World Snooker Championship The World Snooker Championship, or simply known as the World Championship, is the longest-running and most prestigious tournament in professional snooker. It is also the richest event to date with a total prize money of £2,395,000, including ...

. Michie has been described as "charismatic" by the snooker press.

Career

In the 2006/2007 season Michie was ranked only 61, for the first of two successive seasons, having failed to do better than the last-48 (third round) in ranking tournaments, although he did get that far twice that season. In the

Northern Ireland Trophy The Northern Ireland Trophy was a professional snooker tournament. History First contested in 1981 and named ''Northern Ireland Classic''. It was an invitational event held at Ulster Hall, Belfast, and Jimmy White beat Steve Davis in the fi ...

, after having beaten

Ben Woollaston Ben Woollaston (born 14 May 1987) is an English professional snooker player from Leicester. His sole professional title came at the minor-ranking Players Tour Championship 2011/2012 – Event 3, third Players Tour Championship event in 2011. W ...

and six-time World Champion runner-up

Jimmy White James Warren White (born 2 May 1962) is an English professional snooker player who has won ten ranking events. Nicknamed "The Whirlwind" because of his swift and attacking style of play, White has reached six World Snooker Championship finals ...

, he lost 4–5 to

James Wattana James Wattana (; born January 17, 1970, as วัฒนา ภู่โอบอ้อม ''Wattana Pu-Ob-Orm'', then renamed รัชพล ภู่โอบอ้อม ''Ratchapol Pu-Ob-Orm'' in 2003) is a Thai former professional snooker pl ...

, and he fell in the Malta Cup to

Stuart Bingham Stuart Bingham (born 21 May 1976) is an English professional snooker player who is a former World Champion and Masters winner. Bingham won the 1996 World Amateur Championship but enjoyed little sustained success in the early part of his pro ...

, 3–5. Michie has placed as high as no. 55 twice, in both the 2002/2003 and 2004/2005 seasons. His first ranking semi-final (fifth-round) performance was earned, at the 1999

British Open The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...

by defeating

Tony Drago Tony Drago ( ; born 22 September 1965) is a Maltese former professional snooker and pool player. Known for his speed around the table, during his snooker career he won two professional titles: the 1993 Strachan Challenge Event 3 and the 1996 ...

Marcus Campbell Marcus Campbell (born 22 September 1972) is a Scottish former professional snooker player. He was ranked within the world's top 64 for 15 consecutive seasons. Career Campbell is most famous for whitewashing Stephen Hendry 9–0 in the 1998 L ...

Ronnie O'Sullivan Ronald Antonio O'Sullivan (born 5 December 1975) is an English professional snooker player. Widely recognised as one of the most talented and accomplished players in snooker history, he has won the World Snooker Championship seven times, a m ...

, and 1991 World Champion

John Parrott John Stephen Parrott (born 11 May 1964) is an English former professional snooker player who won the 1991 World Snooker Championship. He came to prominence in the mid to late 1980s, and remained within the top 16 of the world rankings for 14 ...

, finally losing to Anthony Hamilton. In the 2002 LG Cup, he beat

Marco Fu Marco Fu Ka-chun (; born 8 January 1978) is a Hong Kong professional snooker player. He is a three-time snooker world rankings, ranking event winner, having won the 2007 Grand Prix (snooker), 2007 Grand Prix, the 2013 Australian Goldfie ...

and Mark King, and narrowly defeated quarter-finalist

Gerard Greene Gerard Eamonn Greene (born 12 November 1973 in Chatham, Kent) is a Northern Irish former professional snooker player. He represents Northern Ireland in international events, as his parents are from Belfast. Greene has enjoyed moderate success ...

5–4 (after having been down 1–4 before dramatically rallying), to reach the semi-finals again. However, he lost 2–6 against the tournament's eventual winner,

Chris Small Christopher Small (born 26 September 1973) is a retired Scottish professional snooker player and now a qualified snooker coach. His playing career was ended by the spinal condition ankylosing spondylitis. Career At age 15, Small was the number ...

. His only World Snooker Championship entrance to date was in the 1996 event, in which he was bumped out in the first round, 8–10, by

. The World Snooker website reported that he "arrived in a stretch limo" at

the Crucible ''The Crucible'' is a 1953 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay from 1692 to 1693. Miller wrote ...

, apparently excited at his first World title opportunity, "but made a low-key exit after losing". In January 2011, he was involved in a controversial televised match against

in the inaugural

Snooker Shoot-Out The Snooker Shoot Out is a professional snooker tournament played under a variation of the standard rules. First staged in 1990 as the Shoot-Out, the event was revived in 2011 and renamed the Snooker Shoot Out. Held from 2011 to 2016 as a non- ...

. Campbell's price to win the match crashed on the betting exchanges pre-match and several bookmakers refused to take any bets on it altogether. The WPBSA issued a statement saying that they would carry out a full investigation. The match against Campbell would prove to be Michie's last as a professional, as he retired shortly afterwards.

Off the table

In 2002, Michie unsuccessfully offered a reward of £1,000 for the return of his cue, which had been stolen along with his car. During the semi-final of the 2006 World Championship, Michie assisted

by gluing a new tip on to O'Sullivan's cue, as O'Sullivan had persistent problems with his cue tip, helping O'Sullivan avoid a penalty during the Championships. In early 2007 he was preparing for charity marathons to raise funds for the anti-cancer foundation that is the legacy of now-deceased fellow pro

Paul Hunter Paul Alan Hunter (14 October 1978 – 9 October 2006) was an English professional snooker player. He was a three-time Masters (snooker), Masters champion, winning the event in 2001 Masters (snooker), 2001, 2002 Masters (snooker), 2002, a ...

. In 2016 Jimmy Michie was jailed for 44 months for importation of unlicensed medication, handling stolen goods, money laundering. The drugs operations Jimmy was involved in were predominantly distributing viagra and diazepam.

References

External links

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Pro Snooker profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Michie, Jimmy English snooker players 1971 births Living people Sportspeople from Pontefract