Peter Francisco (born 14 February 1962) is a South African former professional snooker player who won the African Snooker Championship 4 times and South African Snooker Championship 8 times and the South African Billiards Championship 13 times as an amateur and professional.

Career

Francisco turned professional in 1984, and reached the final stages of 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 ...

on five occasions: 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992 and 1995. He reached the semifinals in two ranking events: the 1986 International Open and the 1987 Grand Prix. In June 2013 he won the ABSF African Snooker Championship. Francisco participated in the 2015 Six-red World Championship, playing five matches in his group. He lost 1–5 to

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 ...

and Jamie Clarke, 3–5 to Mark Williams and 4–5 to eventual champion Thepchaiya and was eliminated after the group stage, but defeated Darren Paris 5–1 to record his first competitive victory since a 10–8 win over Mick Price in the 1995 World Championship.

Controversy

In 1995, Francisco faced

Jimmy White James Warren White (born 2 May 1962) is an English professional snooker player who has won ten ranking events. Nicknamed "The Whirlwind" because of his swift and attacking style of play, White has reached six World Snooker Championship finals ...

in the first 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 ...

. Throughout the match, Francisco played numerous shots which caused bafflement on the part of BBC commentators Clive Everton, John Virgo and Dennis Taylor. There were an unusual number of bets made that the scoreline would be 10–2 in favour of White, which was the eventual outcome. Betting had been suspended on the match against the South African shortly before it began and a World Snooker Association panel analysed the match and later banned Francisco for five years for ''not conducting himself in a manner consistent with his status as a professional sportsman''. At the same hearing he was not found guilty of match rigging. After the five year ban was up he did briefly resume his pro career in 2000 but failed to make any impact.

Personal life

He is the nephew of fellow snooker players Manuel Francisco and Silvino Francisco.

Performance and rankings timeline

Career finals

Amateur finals: 10 (10 titles)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Francisco, Peter 1962 births South African snooker players Living people Sportspeople from Cape Town Competitors at the 2013 World Games