Mark Joyce (born 11 August 1983) is an English former professional snooker player who lives in

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located ...

. He began his professional career by playing on the

Challenge Tour The Challenge Tour, currently titled as the HotelPlanner Tour for sponsorship reasons and also sometimes referred to as the European Challenge Tour, is the second-tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European To ...

in 2003. Joyce enjoyed an outstanding amateur career, winning the European Under-19 Championship in 2001, the English Open in 2005 and the

English Amateur Championship The English Amateur Championship is an annual snooker competition, the highest-ranking and most prestigious amateur event in England. It is also the oldest and longest-running snooker tournament in the world, having been established in 1916, th ...

in 2006, beating

Martin O'Donnell Martin O'Donnell (born May 1, 1955) is an American composer, audio director, and sound designer best known for his work on video game developer Bungie's titles, such as the ''Myth'' series, ''Oni'', the ''Halo'' series, and ''Destiny''. O'Don ...

8–3 in the final. Joyce also finished fifth in the 2005/06 Pontin's International Open Series, winning the second of eight events, to book a place on Main Tour.

Career

2006/07 season

Joyce had a very uneventful first season on Main Tour, failing to qualify for any of the major events. He ended the season losing in the penultimate qualifying round of 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 ...

Fergal O'Brien Fergal O'Brien (born 8 March 1972) is an Irish retired professional snooker player who competed on the World Snooker Tour from 1991 to 2024. He won one ranking title during his career, defeating Anthony Hamilton 9–7 in the final of the 1999 ...

10–4. He also recorded his highest break of 130 in professional play during the qualifiers. This would remain his highest break until the qualifying stages of the 2010 World Championship. He ended the season ranked 73rd.

2007/08 season

Joyce started the season with 2 wins in qualifying for the Shanghai Masters before narrowly losing 5–4 to veteran

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 ...

in the penultimate qualifying round. The

Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural ''Grands Prix'') most commonly refers to: * Grand Prix motor racing, a form of motorsport competition ** List of Formula One Grands Prix, an auto-racing championship *** Monaco Grand Prix, the most prestigious ...

would be the first tournament that Joyce would qualify for after finishing 2nd in his qualifying group. However, he would go on to lose all 5 matches in the group stage of the tournament. After failing to qualify for the Northern Ireland Trophy, Joyce won 3 matches to reach the final qualifying round of the

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 ...

before being ousted 9–2 by Ian McCulloch. The remainder of the season was fairly uneventful as he failed to qualify for the Malta Cup, Welsh Open and the China Open. He finished the season off by losing in the third qualifying round of the

. His exploits in the season resulted in his ranking going up 14 places to number 59. This will mean he would have 1 less qualifying match to play in the following season.

2008/09 season

The season started with a 5–0 victory against Patrick Wallace and then a 5–0 defeat to

Judd Trump Judd Trump (born 20 August 1989) is an English professional snooker player who is a former List of World Snooker Championship winners, world champion and the current List of world number one snooker players, world number one. He is currently in ...

in the first ranking event of the season, the Northern Ireland Trophy. He followed this up with a run to the final qualifying round of the Shanghai Masters in the next event. Another win and a defeat in the

after being reverted to a knockout competition and the same result in the Bahrain Championship. Joyce only recorded 1 win from the next three ranking tournaments, the

, the Welsh Open and the China Open. His best performance of the season was in the qualifying tournament for the Masters, where he reached final, only to lose 1–6 to Judd Trump. The season ended poorly for Joyce with a 10–6 defeat to Patrick Wallace in his first match of the

qualifiers. Despite this, he ended the season up 2 places to number 57 in the rankings.

2009/10 season

Joyce's fourth season on the tour got off to a bad start with a 5–2 defeat to Joe Jogia in the qualifying for the Shanghai Masters. He followed this up with victories over

Andrew Norman Andrew Norman (born October 31, 1979) is an American composer of contemporary classical music whose texturally complex music is influenced by architecture and the visual arts. His string trio '' The Companion Guide to Rome'' (2010), was a runn ...

, Michael Judge and

Barry Hawkins Barry Hawkins (born 23 April 1979) is an English professional snooker player from Ditton, Kent. He turned professional in 1996, but only rose to prominence in the 2004–05 snooker season when he reached the last 16 of the 2004 UK Championship, ...

to qualify for the

. He was drawn against the defending champion

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 ...

and was defeated 5–1. The remainder of the season up to the

was uneventful with only 2 wins in 3 ranking tournaments. In qualifying for the

, he recorded a 139 break (his highest so far in professional snooker) against Jimmy Robertson in the 3rd qualifying round. He won this match 10–9 and then defeated Michael Judge 10–8 to set up a meeting with

Jamie Cope Jamie Cope (born 12 September 1985) is an English former professional snooker player. A finalist in two ranking tournaments, the 2006 Grand Prix and the 2007 China Open, Cope also reached the semi-finals of the 2011 Masters. He reached his h ...

for a place 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 ...

. Cope was to prove too strong for Joyce as he ran away a 10–5 winner.

2010/11 season

Despite starting from the first round of qualification, Joyce managed to qualify for the televised stages of the

for the first time in his career, beating six-time World Champion

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 ...

9–2 in the final qualifying round. He reached the quarter-finals of a

ranking A ranking is a relationship between a set of items, often recorded in a list, such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than", or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak ...

tournament for the first time in his career by defeating

Ali Carter Allister Carter (born 25 July 1979) is an English professional snooker player. He has twice been a World Championship finalist, in 2008 and 2012, losing both finals to Ronnie O'Sullivan. He has won six ranking titles and briefly reached number t ...

9–6 in the last 32 and

9–7 in the last 16. In quarter-finals, he lost 7–9 to Mark Williams. He ended the season with the highest ranking of his career so far at world number 42, which meant he had climbed 16 places during the year.

2011/12 season

Joyce began the season by winning the Pink Ribbon Pro-Am charity tournament, where he whitewashed Michael Holt 4–0 in the final. Due to his new ranking he would need to win two qualifying matches to reach the main stage of the ranking events on the snooker calendar. However, he started the season poorly and saw his ranking slip to number 51 in January, meaning he would now need to win three matches. He achieved this at the Welsh Open as he saw off Daniel Wells, Joe Jogia and held his nerve against

Andrew Higginson Andrew Higginson (born 13 December 1977) is an English professional snooker player from Widnes, Cheshire. He is best known for being the surprise finalist of the 2007 Welsh Open (snooker), 2007 Welsh Open. Career Early years After some succ ...

in a final frame decider to book his place in the main draw, where he played

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 ...

. A huge shock appeared to be in the offing as Joyce raced into a 2–0 lead, but Murphy found his form and four frames in a row to triumph. Joyce failed to win another qualifying match in the remaining three tournaments, concluding with a 4–10 loss to David Morris in the

. He finished the season ranked world number 59, dropping 17 places from his starting point, but still inside the top 64 who retain their places for the 2012–13 season.

2012/13 season

Joyce failed to qualify for any of the first four ranking events of the season, but then defeated Andy Hicks and

to reach the

. At the event in

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

, the world number 50 Joyce pulled off a major shock by coming back from 2–5 down to knock out the world number one

6–5. In the second round he was beaten 2–6 by

. After this, he won three matches to qualify for both the World Open and the China Open. Trump exacted his revenge in the first round of the World Open by whitewashing him 0–5, and he withdrew from the China Open as his partner was due to give birth. Joyce had a very consistent season in the minor-ranking

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 Players Championship Grand Final, ...

events, with his best results coming in Event 4 and European Tour Event 5, where he lost in the quarter-finals to Trump and

Ken Doherty Kenneth Joseph Doherty (born 17 September 1969) is an Irish professional snooker player who also works as a commentator and pundit on televised snooker broadcasts. From Ranelagh in Dublin, he is the sport's only World Snooker Championship, wor ...

respectively. He finished 26th on the PTC Order of Merit, claiming the final spot to qualify 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 ...

, where

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 ...

beat him 4–2. Joyce's season ended when he was beaten 7–10 by Michael Holt in the final round of World Championship Qualifying. He climbed 17 places in the rankings during the year to end it placed at world number 42.

2013/14 season

The 2013–14 season proved to be a successful one as he played at the venue stage of six ranking events, three more than his previous best. His deepest run out of these came at the World Open which he qualified for by beating

Fraser Patrick Fraser Patrick (born 8 November 1985) is a Scottish former professional snooker player from Glasgow. Career Patrick started his professional career in 2002 by playing Challenge Tour, where he spent three seasons without success. In 2007 Patric ...

5–2. Once at the venue in

Haikou Haikou; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanized as Hoihow is the capital city, capital and most populous city of the Chinese province of Hainan. Haikou city is situated on the northern coast of Hainan, by the mouth of the Nandu River. ...

, China, Joyce defeated David Morris 5–2 and came back from 4–2 down against last year's

runner-up

to hit breaks of 65, 68 and 72 to edge him out 5–4. He also fought back in the last 16 as he lost the opening two frames against

Kurt Maflin Kurt Graham Maflin (born 8 August 1983) is an English-Norwegian former professional snooker player. A strong break-builder, Maflin has compiled more than 200 century breaks during his career and has made two 147 breaks in professional competit ...

to earn a 5–3 victory. In Joyce's second career ranking event quarter-final he played

and was defeated 5–3.

2014/15 season

Joyce played in seven ranking events this season, the most in a single year in his career to date. He was knocked out in the first round of the

2014 Wuxi Classic The 2014 Sports Lottery Cup Wuxi Classic was a professional ranking snooker tournament held between 23 and 29 June 2014 at the Wuxi City Sports Park Stadium in Wuxi, China. It was the first ranking event of the 2014/2015 season. Neil Robertson ...

5–1 by Mark Williams and at the

Australian Goldfields Open The Australian Goldfields Open was a professional Snooker world rankings, ranking snooker tournament. The final champion was John Higgins in 2015. History Australia had previously hosted the 1971 World Snooker Championship, 1971 and 1975 World ...

he beat Ryan Day 5–3, before losing 5–2 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 ...

in the second round. This last 16 exit proved to be Joyce's deepest run in an event this season. He also reached the last 32 of the Indian Open, losing 4–1 to

Tian Pengfei Tian Pengfei (; born 16 August 1987) is a Chinese former professional snooker player. He began his career by playing the Challenge Tour in 2004, at the time the second-level professional tour. Tian played on the Main Tour in 2006 and competed o ...

2015/16 season

Joyce opened the season with three wins to qualify for the

and beat

Mark Allen Mark may refer to: In the Bible * Mark the Evangelist (5–68), traditionally ascribed author of the Gospel of Mark * Gospel of Mark, one of the four canonical gospels and one of the three synoptic gospels Currencies * Mark (currency), a currenc ...

5–2, before losing 5–4 to

Matthew Selt Matthew Selt (born 7 March 1985) is an English professional snooker player. He qualified for the professional tour by finishing seventh in the Pontin's International Open Series in 2006/2007. Selt played in his first professional final in 2014 ...

. A first round defeat to Ryan Day in the

International Championship The International Championship is a professional Snooker world rankings, ranking snooker tournament. The reigning champion is Ding Junhui. History The event was introduced in the 2012–13 snooker season, 2012/2013 season. It was named as the ...

was followed by defeating

Barry Pinches Barry Pinches (born 13 July 1970 in Catton, Norwich) is an English former professional snooker player, recognisable for his bright and flamboyant waistcoats, which usually feature the yellow and green colours of Norwich City F.C. He is a form ...

and

Sydney Wilson Sydney Wilson (born 6 April 1990 in Southend-on-Sea, Essex) is an English former professional snooker player. Career Wilson began playing snooker at the age of three with his father teaching him the basics of the game. He later took lessons ...

at the

. Joyce built a 5–0 lead over Dechawat Poomjaeng, but lost six frames in a row to be eliminated in the third round. He bounced back to win two matches and 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 ...

and recorded his second 5–2 first round triumph of the season over Allen. Joyce reached his third career quarter-final after overcoming Mark King 5–2 and led

Luca Brecel Luca Brecel (; born 8 March 1995) is a Belgian professional snooker player. A four-time snooker world rankings, ranking event winner, Brecel is a former World Snooker Championship, World Snooker Champion, having won the 2023 World Snooker Champ ...

4–2, but would lose 5–4. He lost in the second round of the Welsh Open and China Open 4–1 to

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 ...

and 5–1 to

respectively.

2016/17 season

At the

, Joyce overcame

Martin Gould Martin Gould (born 14 September 1981) is an English former professional snooker player from Pinner in the London Borough of Harrow. He has appeared in four ranking finals and won one ranking title, the 2016 German Masters. Career Gould began ...

6–3, before losing 6–4 to

Zhou Yuelong Zhou Yuelong (; born 24 January 1998) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He has been runner-up at three ranking events, the January 2020 European Masters, the 2020 Snooker Shoot Out, and the 2022 Northern Ireland Open. Career Between 2 ...

. He also lost in the second round of the

6–2 against David Gilbert. The highlight of Joyce's season came at the China Open where, after narrowly seeing off

5–4, he was never behind against

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 ...

in another 5–4 win. It was the only time Joyce played in the last 16 of a ranking event this season and he was defeated 5–3 by

Ding Junhui Ding Junhui (; born 1 April 1987) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He is the most successful Asian player in the history of the sport. Throughout his career, he has won 15 major ranking titles, including three UK Championships (2005 ...

2017/18 season

At the

, Joyce reached the quarter final for the second time after beating the likes of David Gilbert and

Neil Robertson Neil Alexander Robertson (born 11 February 1982) is an Australian professional snooker player, who is a former List of World Snooker Championship winners, world champion and former List of world number one snooker players, world number one. He ...

. In particular, Joyce said that his 6–5 win over Robertson was one of the best wins of his career. He faced Ryan Day in the quarter final and narrowly lost in the decider.

2019/20 season

Joyce reached his first ever ranking final in the Riga Masters after beating Sam Baird, Scott Donaldson, Liam Highfield,

Jack Lisowski Jack Lisowski (born 25 June 1991) is an English professional snooker player from Churchdown, Gloucestershire. He turned professional in 2010 by finishing first in the 2009/2010 International Open Series, PIOS rankings. A left-handed player, he ...

Stuart Carrington Stuart Carrington (born 14 May 1990) is an English former professional snooker player. He practises frequently with Steven Hallworth and Ian Glover in Grimsby. In May 2011, Carrington qualified for the 2011–12 professional Main Tour as on ...

, and

. He lost 5–2 to

Yan Bingtao Yan Bingtao (; born 16 February 2000) is a Chinese former professional snooker player who is currently serving a five-year ban from professional competition after committing a range of match-fixing offences. He rose to prominence by winning th ...

in the final.

2020/21 season

Joyce qualified for 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 ...

for the first time after beating Anthony Hamilton and Igor Figueiredo in the qualifying rounds. He drew the reigning champion

in the first round. During the match, Joyce closed the gap to 4-3 and had a chance to steal the eighth frame to level the match, but O'Sullivan stole the frame with the final black to lead 5–3. Joyce ultimately lost 10–4 to O'Sullivan.

Personal life

Joyce practises mainly at the Qbar snooker club in

Walsall Wood Walsall Wood is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, in the West Midlands county, England. It is located middway between the towns of Aldridge and Brownhills, as well as Walsall and Lichfield. History In the late-18th century and ...

although he has said in an interview that he travels out at least once a week to practise with other players, to keep himself sharp. He is a

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

fan and is a keen golfer. In 2010, Joyce was the victim of an attack outside a nightclub in Birmingham, after an argument in a bar over whose turn it was to get served. He suffered a fractured elbow and problems with his eyesight which led to a reduction in playing time during the first six months of 2011.

Performance and rankings timeline

Career finals

Ranking finals: 1

Non-ranking finals: 1

Pro-am finals: 2 (2 titles)

Amateur finals: 6 (4 titles)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Joyce, Mark 1983 births Living people English snooker players Sportspeople from Walsall 21st-century English sportsmen