Joe Swail (born 29 August 1969) is a Northern Irish former professional

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets, one at each corner and one in the middle of each long side. First played by British Army officers stationed in Ind ...

player from

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingd ...

. He retired in May 2019 after being relegated from the tour. He has reached ten major ranking semi-finals, including the

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and

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanistan ...

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, ...

s but only one final. Swail is renowned for playing well at the

Crucible Theatre The Crucible Theatre (often referred to simply as "The Crucible") is a theatre in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England which opened in 1971. Although it hosts regular theatrical performances, it is best known for hosting professional snooker's ...

, having reached the last 16 on four further occasions. He is also a former English amateur champion and Northern Ireland amateur runner-up, and has captained Northern Ireland internationally. He was Irish champion in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engines ...

and

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris (dwarf planet), Er ...

Career

Swail has had a very mixed history in the rankings. He took just two seasons to reach the Top 32, and three to reach the top sixteen, but only remained there for one season,Profile on Global Snooker Centre
before sliding out of the Top 32 after winning just two matches in 1997–98. His 2000 Crucible achievement made him the second player (after

Rex Williams Desmond Rex Williams (born 20 July 1933) is a retired English professional snooker and billiards player. He was the second player to make an official maximum break, achieving this in an exhibition match in December 1965. Williams won the Wo ...

) to return to the Top 16 in the rankings after dropping out of the Top 32 in between. He climbed to No. 10 after his 2001 semi-final, but dropped to 16–27–30–40 in the next few years, finishing with a nightmare season in 2004–05. He then bounced back with an impressive and consistent showing in 2005–06 that brought him back into the Top 32. He came close to the Top 16 in 2006/2007, finishing one place short at 17 despite beating Mark Williams in round 1 of the 2007 World Championships from 0–4 down He came from 7–9 behind to beat Judd Trump 10–9 in qualifying for the 2008 World Championship. Swail scored a comprehensive 10–4 victory over Stephen Lee in the first round at the Crucible, before a 12–13 defeat by Liang Wenbo in the second round, after a trademark comeback from 8–12 down, due to a bad miss on the brown in the decider. This caused him to again miss the top 16, finishing the season in 20th place. He started 2008–09 poorly, with four successive first-round defeats. His first victory of the season was against Liang Wenbo in qualifying for the

2008 UK Snooker Championship The 2008 Maplin UK Championship was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 13 and 21 December 2008 at the Telford International Centre in Telford, England. It was the 32nd edition of the event. World Snooker, the spor ...

. He then reached his firstThe Strachan Challenge which Swail won in 1993 only carried a fraction of the points of a regular ranking tournament so is often dismissed as a ranking tournament since most of the top pros did not compete in it. ever ranking final in his 18-year professional career at the 2009 Welsh Open.BBC Sport: Snooker
– Swail makes semis after epic win Swail led the match 5–2, but never won another frame, losing 9–5 to

Ali Carter Allister Carter (born 25 July 1979) is an English professional snooker player. He has twice been the World Championship runner-up, in 2008 and 2012, losing both finals to Ronnie O'Sullivan. He has won four ranking titles and briefly reached num ...

. After finishing 69th the end of the 2011–12 season, outside of the top 64 that retain their professional status, Swail dropped of the tour after 21 years as a professional. As an amateur, Swail played in many of the

Players Tour Championship The Players Tour Championship was a series of snooker tournaments comprising some minor-ranking events played in Europe, and an Asian leg comprising some minor-ranking events in Asia. The series concluded with a Grand Final, where qualification ...

events. At the Paul Hunter Classic, Swail defeated players such as

Jimmy White James Warren White (born 2 May 1962) is an English professional snooker player who has won three seniors World titles. Nicknamed "The Whirlwind" because of his fluid, attacking style of play, White is the 1980 World Amateur Champion, 2009 ...

Shaun Murphy Shaun Peter Murphy (born 10 August 1982) is an English professional snooker player who won the 2005 World Championship. Nicknamed "The Magician", Murphy is noted for his straight cue action and his long potting. Born in Harlow, Essex and ra ...

and Barry Hawkins en route to the final, doubling the black ball in a final frame decider against Hawkins. In the final, he was defeated 1–4 by

Mark Selby Mark Anthony Selby (born 19 June 1983) is an English professional snooker player, who is a four-time World Snooker Champion. Ranked world number one on multiple occasions, he has won a total of 21 ranking titles, placing him eighth on the a ...

. This not only booked his place on the tour for the following season, but also qualified him for the PTC Finals in

Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a city in the West of Ireland, in the province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay, and is the sixth most populous city ...

, Ireland, where he defeated

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 ...

4–3, despite being 0–3 down. He lost 0–4 in the Last 16 to fellow Northern Irishman Mark Allen. At the 2013 World Snooker Championship, Swail entered the Pre-Qualifying rounds for amateur players, he won 3 of these matches, as well as his Last 96 and Last 80 matches against Pankaj Advani, and Adam Duffy respectively. He lost his Last 64 match against Mark Joyce 7–10, picking up £4,600 for his efforts. After regaining his professional status due to his performances in the previous season's PTC events, Swail was able to play in ranking events during the season. He lost in the Last 96 of the Wuxi Classic, 2–5 to

Ken Doherty Ken Doherty (born 17 September 1969) is an Irish professional snooker player, commentator and radio presenter. As an amateur, Doherty won the Irish Amateur Championship twice, the World Under-21 Amateur Championship and the World Amateur C ...

, in the qualifiers for the

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. ...

, he beat Darren Cook 5–2, before losing 4–5 in the Last 96 to Pankaj Advani.

Playing style

Swail is known for his very unorthodox way of cueing up. Instead of keeping his cue-arm vertical as most players do, Swail cues up with his arm bent at least 45 degrees outwards, and his elbow towards his back. Although it appears to be extremely difficult to actually pot balls when cueing like that it has worked for Swail and provides him with an abundance of cue power.

Personal life

Swail is congenitally hearing-impaired, and his brother Liam is completely deaf. He has told the BBC that he regards this as an advantage for snooker, as he is less likely to be distracted by crowd and other background noise. Swail's nickname, "the Outlaw", is a pun on his name "Joe Swail" and ''

The Outlaw Josey Wales ''The Outlaw Josey Wales'' is a 1976 American Revisionist Western film set during and after the American Civil War. It was directed by and starred Clint Eastwood (as Josey Wales), with Chief Dan George, Sondra Locke, Sam Bottoms, and Gerald ...

'', the 1976 film. He has a son, also called Joe, and supports Liverpool F.C.

Performance and rankings timeline

Career finals

Ranking finals: 1

Minor-ranking finals: 2 (1 title)

Non-ranking finals: 8 (7 titles)

Pro-am finals: 12 (5 titles)

Amateur finals: 4 (2 titles)

Notes and references

External links

*
Joe Swail
at ''worldsnooker.com'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Swail, Joe Snooker players from Northern Ireland Deaf sportspeople 1969 births Living people Sportspeople from Belfast Deaf people from Northern Ireland