David William Harold (born 9 December 1966) 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
Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England. It has an estimated population of 259,965 as of 2022, making it the largest settlement in Staffordshire ...
. He was known by the nicknames of "the Hard Man" and "the Stoke Potter" (conflating his home city's
pottery
Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...
industry and his profession of potting snooker balls). He was also the first player on the television circuit to sport a plaster on his chin as a guide for his cue, which is a practice now adopted by
Graeme Dott. As an amateur he played as David Harold, but after turning professional in 1991 he was registered as Dave Harold.
He won one ranking title, reached two further finals and several semi-finals, and spent four seasons ranked among the top 16. Harold was renowned for both his very strong defensive play and his unusual cue-action, with which he is able to unleash a great deal of power on a shot without using backswing on the cue. Despite safety play ultimately being considered his strong point, he compiled 143 century breaks.
Steve Davis
Steve Davis (born 22 August 1957) is an English retired professional snooker player who is currently a Sports commentator, commentator, DJ, electronic musician and author. He dominated professional snooker in the 1980s, when he reached eight ...
has commented that he is not the most naturally gifted player, but makes up for this with strong tactical play. For his technique and grinding play he has been compared to
Cliff Thorburn
Clifford Charles Devlin Thorburn (born 16 January 1948) is a Canadian retired professional snooker player. Nicknamed "The Grinder" because of his slow, determined style of play, he won the World Snooker Championship in 1980, defeating Alex Hi ...
.
Career
Early career
Soon after turning professional, Harold won the
1993 Asian Open
The 1993 Thailand Masters, Nescafe Asian Open was a professional Snooker world rankings, ranking snooker tournament that took place between 13–20 March 1993 at the Imperial Queens Park Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand.
Dave Harold won the tournament ...
, beating
Darren Morgan 9–3 in the final. Ranked 93rd in the world at the time, he became the lowest-ranked player ever to win a ranking tournament. He never repeated this achievement, although he reached his second ranking final in the 1994
Grand Prix, losing 6–9 to
John Higgins.
Top 16 (1996–2002)
After 1994, Harold did not reach a third ranking final until 2008, although he reached a total of ten semi-finals in ranking tournaments, and was a Top-16 player for four seasons between
1995/1996 and
2001/2002, reaching a career-best position of No. 11 in the
world rankings in the 1996/97 season. In the 1996 Welsh Open, he lost in the semi-finals, 1–6, to eventual winner
Mark Williams.
He competed in his first and only
World Championship
A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...
quarter-final in
the 1996 event, where he lost 7–13 to
Nigel Bond. He also lost 5–6 to Bond in his 1996 British Open semi-final less than two weeks earlier.
In the 1998
Grand Prix, he knocked out
Stephen Hendry
Stephen Gordon Hendry (born 13 January 1969) is a Scottish retired professional snooker player and a current Sports commentator, commentator and pundit. One of the most successful players in snooker history, he turned professional in 1985, ag ...
and
John Higgins en route to the semi-finals, but lost narrowly to eventual champion
Stephen Lee. 1998 also saw him reach his first semi-final in the UK Championship, where he was defeated 9–7 by
Matthew Stevens.
In the 1999
Grand Prix Harold led Mark Williams 5–3 in the semi-finals but lost 5–6. This was Harold's last ranking semi-final until 2008, although he also reached the semis in the non-ranking 2001
Masters, defeating
John Higgins and
John Parrott, but losing his semi-final 5–6 to eventual runner-up
Fergal O'Brien after having trailed 5–1.
2003–2015
Following a poor season in 2001–2002, Harold dropped out of the Top 16, down to number 29 in the World Rankings. A broken wrist sustained on New Year's Eve 2003 saw him drop further down the rankings, out of the top 32, although he had a better
2005/2006 season. Another consistent season in
2006/2007 helped Harold back up to No. 30 in the
world rankings for 2007/2008.
2007/2008 started with a quarter-final appearance in the
Shanghai Masters, losing to eventual winner
Dominic Dale. Harold did not get past the round robin phase of the
Grand Prix, finishing fifth in his group of six players; but in the 2007
UK Championship
The UK Championship is a professional ranking snooker tournament. It is one of snooker's prestigious Triple Crown events, along with the World Championship and the Masters. It is usually held at the Barbican in York, England. Ronnie O'Sull ...
, Harold eliminated World Number 2
Graeme Dott 9–7 in the first round to achieve a place in the last 16 of the tournament for the first time since 1999. However, he lost 2–9 in the second round to
Mark Selby
Mark Anthony Selby (born 19 June 1983) is an English professional snooker player. Ranked List of world number one snooker players, world number one on multiple occasions, he has won a total of 24 ranking titles, placing him eighth on the all ...
. He qualified for the final stages of the World Championship with a 10–4 win over
Mike Dunn, but lost 10–3 at the Crucible in the first round proper to
Shaun Murphy
Shaun Peter Murphy (born 10 August 1982) is an English professional snooker player who won the 2005 World Snooker Championship, 2005 World Championship and has completed the Triple Crown (snooker), Triple Crown. Nicknamed "The Magician", Murp ...
.
During a preliminary round match against local wildcard
Jin Long in the
2008 China Open, Harold was locked at 4–4. He took time out before the deciding frame to leave the playing arena and consume a couple of bananas, returning replenished to finish the job with a clearance on the colours. This gave rise to the affectionate nickname "
Bananaman" on the
Betfair
Betfair is a British Gambling, gambling company founded in 2000. Its product offering includes betting exchange, sports betting, online casino, online poker, and online bingo. Business operations are led from its headquarters in London, alongsi ...
snooker forum, referring to a children's TV character who gained superhuman powers. Harold also put up a battle against
Shaun Murphy
Shaun Peter Murphy (born 10 August 1982) is an English professional snooker player who won the 2005 World Snooker Championship, 2005 World Championship and has completed the Triple Crown (snooker), Triple Crown. Nicknamed "The Magician", Murp ...
in the next round, but eventually lost 5–3; the last frame set a record at the time for being the longest ever in snooker history (93 minutes and 12 seconds).
Harold retained his Top 32 ranking, and started the
2008–09 season ranked at
#28, his highest ranking since 2003. In the first ranking event of the new season, the
2008 Northern Ireland Trophy, he beat
Ricky Walden 5–2,
Graeme Dott 5–3,
Stephen Lee 5–4 and defending champion
Stephen Maguire to reach the semi-finals, his first appearance at that stage of a ranking event for five years. He then moved into a 5–1 lead against
John Higgins and won 6–4, to reach his first final since 1994, which he lost 9–3 to
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 ...
. Harold's performance in this tournament moved him up to 14th in the provisional world rankings. Harold remarked after the final that, aside from claiming the World Championship, his one other remaining ambition in the game is to score a victory over O'Sullivan, who he has never beaten in a ranking tournament. The
2008 Northern Ireland Trophy marked his tenth consecutive failure to do so.
Harold subsequently qualified for the
2008 Shanghai Masters and
Grand Prix. In the former, he defeated home favourite
Ding Junhui in the last 32, before losing 4–5 (from 3–0 and 4–1 up) against
Steve Davis
Steve Davis (born 22 August 1957) is an English retired professional snooker player who is currently a Sports commentator, commentator, DJ, electronic musician and author. He dominated professional snooker in the 1980s, when he reached eight ...
; however, in the latter he was eliminated in the first round by
Ali Carter. A less successful run of results in the second half of the season saw him fall out of the Top 16 in the provisional rankings, largely due to his failure to qualify for the 2009 World Championship, although he started the 2009/2010 season ranked at No. 19, an improvement of nine places on the previous season.
Harold appeared in the Welsh Open in January 2010 but lost in the first round 5–1 to Stephen Hendry. In September he beat Shaun Murphy 3–0 in the newly formed World Open in Glasgow but subsequently lost in the next round to Jamie Cope 3–2.
The
2012–13 season saw Harold win 2 qualifying matches to reach the main stages of the
2012 Wuxi Classic, however, he lost his wildcard match to Chinese player
Rouzi Maimaiti. Harold subsequently failed to qualify for the next four ranking events, losing to players such as
Ali Carter,
Barry Hawkins, and
Cao Yupeng
Cao Yupeng (; born 27 October 1990) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He won the 2011 Asian Under-21 Championship, thus qualifying for the professional main tour for the 2011–12 season. In his first season on the circuit, he reached ...
. He did, however, qualify for the
German Masters
The German Masters is a professional Snooker world rankings, ranking snooker tournament held at the Tempodrom in Berlin, Germany since 2011, except for 2021, when it was held at Milton Keynes in England because of the COVID-19 pandemic. An ear ...
, beating
Craig Steadman 5–3 and
Ryan Day 5–4 to qualify for the Last 32 of the event, where he lost 3–5 to former world champion
Graeme Dott. He only won 1 more match in ranking event qualifiers for the rest of the season, culminating with a 9–10 defeat the
Alfie Burden in qualifying for the
World Championship
A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...
. Harold played in many of the
Players Tour Championship event throughout the season, his best results being three Last 16 appearances, and a further two Last 32 results, finishing 39th on the Order of Merit, outside of the Top 26 that qualified for the
Finals
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...
.
Harold started the
2013–14 season ranked 50th in the
world rankings. He retired in May 2015 after suffering from eyesight problems.
Personal life
Harold was born in
Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England. It has an estimated population of 259,965 as of 2022, making it the largest settlement in Staffordshire ...
and still lives there to this day. He is a
Stoke City F.C.
Stoke City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team competes in the , the second level of the English football league system.
Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, the cl ...
fan. He has three children and is separated from his wife.
Performance and rankings timeline
Career finals
Ranking finals: 3 (1 title)
Non-ranking finals: 2 (1 title)
Pro-am finals: 6 (3 titles)
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harold, Dave
1966 births
Living people
English snooker players
Sportspeople from Stoke-on-Trent