Michael Judge (born 12 January 1975 in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

) is a 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 the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

. His best performance in a ranking event came in the 2004 Grand Prix, where he reached the semi-finals, and he reached his highest

ranking A ranking is a relationship between a set of items 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 order or total preorder of o ...

, 24th, for the 2002–03 season. He returned to the professional tour having gained a two-year card at 2021 Q School.

Career

Judge qualified 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, ...

three times, his best performance coming in the 2001 tournament, after knocking

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 ...

out in qualifying and

John Parrott John Stephen Parrott, (born 11 May 1964) is an English former professional snooker player and television personality. He was a familiar face on the professional snooker circuit during the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, and remained within ...

in the first round, before being knocked out by fellow Dubliner

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 ...

. He lost to eventual champion

Peter Ebdon Peter David Ebdon (born 27 August 1970) is an English former snooker player. The winner of the 2002 World Snooker Championship, Ebdon won nine world ranking events, placing twelfth on the all-time list of ranking tournament winners. In additi ...

in the first round a year later. He has lost in the final qualifying round on seven occasions, a record. In 2006–07 he had something of a return to form, climbing 10 places in the rankings to 34th, after five successive falls from his career high of 24th, aided by a last 16 run in the Welsh Open. He then reached the last 16 of the

Grand Prix Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to: Arts and entertainment ...

early in the 2007–08 season, and repeated this at the Welsh Open in

Newport Newport most commonly refers to: *Newport, Wales *Newport, Rhode Island, US Newport or New Port may also refer to: Places Asia *Newport City, Metro Manila, a Philippine district in Pasay Europe Ireland *Newport, County Mayo, a town on the ...

, by beating

Nigel Bond Nigel Bond (born 15 November 1965) is an English former professional snooker player. Bond competed on the main tour from 1989 to 2022, and was ranked within the world's top 16 players between 1992 and 1999, peaking at 5th for the 1996–97 s ...

and

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 an ...

, both 5–4, before succumbing to a 5–2 defeat by Stephen Lee. He did enough in the rest of the season to return to the top 32 of the rankings. However, he slipped straight back out the following season after two last sixteen runs were tempered by six first round defeats. In January 2010 he qualified for the Welsh Open, losing to

John Higgins John Higgins, (born 18 May 1975) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He has won 31 career ranking titles, placing him in third position on the all-time list of ranking event winners, behind Ronnie O'Sullivan (39) and Stephen Hendry ( ...

in the first round proper. He quit after the following season but returned to the sport a year later and would go on to win the Irish Amateur Championship in 2013 beating Robert Redmond 8–5 in the final. He won it again in 2018 and entered Q School in a bid to win back his place on the professional snooker tour. In the first round of event one he defeated former pro Mitchell Mann 4–3. In the second event he hit a century against Hu Hao. He went into the final day still in contention.

Performance and rankings timeline

Career finals

Non-ranking finals: 4 (2 titles)

Amateur finals: 5 (2 titles)

References

External links

*
Player Profile at Pro Snooker
{{DEFAULTSORT:Judge, Michael 1975 births Living people Irish snooker players Sportspeople from Dublin (city)