Ian McCulloch (born 28 July 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

Walton-Le-Dale Walton-le-Dale is a large village in the borough of South Ribble, in Lancashire, England. It lies on the south bank of the River Ribble, opposite the city of Preston, adjacent to Bamber Bridge. The population of the South Ribble Ward at the ...

, Preston,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

Career

McCulloch turned professional in 1992, and after steadily climbing up the rankings for many years, he reached the quarter-finals of a ranking event for the first time in the 1999 Welsh Open. He also made his debut in the Crucible stages of the 1999 World Championship. He entered his best form in his early 30s. He reached two ranking event finals – the 2002 British Open (losing to

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 ...

) and the 2004 Grand Prix in his home town (losing 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 ...

). He reached the quarter finals of the 2004 World Snooker Championship. He went one stage further in

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

, losing 14–17 to

Matthew Stevens Matthew John Stevens (born 11 September 1977) is a Welsh professional snooker player. He has won two of the game's Triple Crown events, the Masters in 2000 and the UK Championship in 2003. He has also been a two-time runner-up in the other t ...

in the semi-final, beating

Graeme Dott Graeme Dott (born 12 May 1977) is a Scottish professional snooker player and snooker coach from Larkhall. He turned professional in 1994 and first entered the top 16 in 2001. He has won two ranking titles, the 2006 World Snooker Championship ...

, Mark Williams and

Alan McManus Alan McManus (born 21 January 1971) is a Scottish retired professional snooker player, and a current commentator and pundit for ITV and Eurosport on snooker coverage. A mainstay of the world's top sixteen during the 1990s and 2000s, he has wo ...

en route. McCulloch was ranked number 16 in the rankings in 2005/2006 season, which would normally guarantee a seeding in the ranking tournaments, but was pushed out by

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 ...

, who as the reigning

world champion 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 ...

was not in the top 16 of the rankings, and was seeded ahead of him in tournaments. In his 2005–06 season a quarter-final appearance in the Welsh Open was the highlight. He failed to qualify 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 ...

, losing to

Dave Harold David William Harold (born 9 December 1966) is an English former professional snooker player from Stoke-on-Trent. He was known by the nicknames of "the Hard Man" and "the Stoke Potter" (conflating his home city's pottery industry and his prof ...

, causing him to drop down the rankings. He made his first appearance as a

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

pundit during the tournament. An improved 2006–07 campaign included a quarter-final run in the Grand Prix. He qualified for the

, and in the first round he eliminated defending champion Graeme Dott 10–7, but he lost in the second round 8–13 to Anthony Hamilton. In the

2007 UK Championship The 2007 UK Championship (officially the 2007 Maplin UK Championship) was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 8 and 16 December 2007 at the Telford International Centre in Telford, England. Peter Ebdon was the defen ...

he also knocked out the defending champion, by coming from 0–5 down against

Peter Ebdon Peter David Ebdon (born 27 August 1970) is an English retired professional snooker player who is a former world champion and current coach. Ebdon won nine ranking titles during his career, placing him in joint 14th position (with John Parrott ...

to beat him 9–8 in a remarkable comeback. He lost to

Stephen Maguire Stephen Maguire (born 13 March 1981) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He has won six major ranking tournaments, including the 2004 UK Championship, and has twice since reached the finals of that event. Maguire turned professional in ...

5–9 in the last 16. He missed out on the 2008 World Championship after losing 5–10 to eventual quarter-finalist,

Liang Wenbo Liang Wenbo ( zh, s=梁文博; born 5 March 1987) is a Chinese former professional snooker player. During his playing career, he won one ranking title at the 2016 English Open, twice won the World Cup for China in 2011 and 2017 with teammate ...

. The 2008–09 season was a struggle, with only two wins in the first five tournaments. He failed to qualify for the

again, losing to Rory McLeod despite scoring three centuries. After the 2011/12 season, he decided to quit the game for good after finishing number 68 in the world. This was in part motivated by an occupational shoulder injury. His best run was at the Welsh Open where he reached the final qualifying round before losing to

Tom Ford Thomas Carlyle Ford (born August 27, 1961) is an American fashion designer and filmmaker. He launched Tom Ford (brand), his eponymous brand in 2005, having previously been the creative director at Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent (brand), Yves Sai ...

3–4. On 11 October 2009, he won the Bodensee Open, although he was the only professional player taking part.

Broadcasting

McCulloch is a regular pundit for William Hill and can be heard in their shops previewing snooker tournaments and as a regular in-studio guest on their In-Play Radio service.

Performance and rankings timeline

Career finals

Ranking tournaments: 2

References

External links

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Profile on Yahoo! Sport
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCulloch, Ian 1971 births Living people English snooker players People from Walton-le-Dale