John Read 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. Read competed between 1991 and 2003, with his highest ranking being 62nd. His most notable tournament run was at the 1996 Malta Masters, where he was beaten in the final by Mark Davis.

Career

Read turned professional in 1991, making an immediate impact at the 1992 Asian Open; there, in only his fifth ranking tournament, he reached the quarter-finals, defeating seven players - including Fred Davis,

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and

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- to qualify for the final stages in

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before also eliminating Brian Morgan and David Roe. He could not progress any further, however, as

Joe Swail Joe Swail (born 29 August 1969) is a Northern Irish former professional snooker player from Belfast. He retired in May 2019 after being relegated from the tour. He has reached ten major ranking semi-finals, including the 2000 and 2001 World Cham ...

whitewashed him 5–0 to reach the semi-finals. In the following year's edition of the Asian Open, Read reached the last 32, where he lost 3–5 to Nick Fruin; his only other performance of note during the 1992–93 season came in qualifying for the World Championship, where he reached the last 48. Requiring only one more win to reach the

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for the first time, he lost 9–10 to Tony Jones, finishing the season ranked 78th. Having came close to reaching his second ranking event quarter-final at the 1995 Welsh Open - where he lost 4–5 to Peter Ebdon in the last 16 - Read was one of the players invited to compete in the 1996 Malta Masters in May 1996. As part of a sixteen-man field, he defeated amateur Amnuayporn Chotipong 4–0, Gary Wilkinson 4–2 and Suriya Suwannasingh 5–3 to reach the first final of his professional career. He could not capture his first title, as Mark Davis beat him 6–3. The result in Malta did not inspire better performances during 1996–97, but in the following season, Read reached his second career quarter-final, in the 1997 Grand Prix. Ranked 70th for the season, he beat

Dean Reynolds Dean Reynolds (born 11 January 1963 in Grimsby) is an English former professional snooker player whose career spanned twenty years from 1981 to 2001. Early and personal life From Grimsby, Reynolds is a left-handed player and started playing ...

5–3 before eliminating three consecutive players who themselves were ranked in the top 32 - Rod Lawler 5–3,

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5–2 and Tony Drago 5–3 - to set up a meeting with

John Higgins John Higgins (born 18 May 1975) is a Scottish professional snooker player from Wishaw in North Lanarkshire. Since turning professional in 1992, he has won 33 ranking titles, placing him in third position on the List of snooker players by num ...

. Higgins proved too strong a challenge for Read; he scored only 48 points in a 0–5 defeat. Thanks to his efforts in the Grand Prix, Read entered the 1998/1999 season ranked within the top 64, at 62nd, but his best showing that season came at the UK Championship, where he reached the last 32 before losing 5–9 to Lawler(However, his 1st round opponent,

withdrew from the match due to exhaustion). He qualified once in his career for the final stages of the World Championship at the Crucible Theatre, in the

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edition of the event. However, after beating Davis,

Neal Foulds Neal Foulds (born 13 July 1963) is an English former professional snooker player and six-time tournament winner, including the 1986 International Open, the 1988 Dubai Masters and the 1992 Scottish Masters, as well as the invitational Pot Bla ...

and Morgan to qualify, he lost 4–10 in the first round to the eventual champion, Mark Williams. The 2000 World Championship was the last time Read featured at the venue stage of a ranking tournament; with poor performances in qualifying events between 2000 and 2003, he slipped from 63rd in the rankings for the 1999–2000 season to 98th at the end of 2002–03, and at that time was relegated from the main tour.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Read, John Living people English snooker players Year of birth missing (living people)