David Gilbert (snooker player)

David Brown Gilbert (born 12 June 1981) is an English professional snooker player. He is a former World Snooker Young Player of Distinction and practises in Tamworth, Staffordshire at Tamworth Cue Sports Leisure Club. Having never previously been beyond the last 16 of a ranking event, Gilbert reached the final of the 2015 International Championship where he lost 5–10 to John Higgins.

This article is about the snooker player born 1981. For the snooker player born 1961, see Dave Gilbert (snooker player, born 1961).

David Gilbert
Born (1981-06-12) 12 June 1981
Derby, England
Sport country England
NicknameThe Angry Farmer[1]
Professional2002–2004, 2005–
Highest ranking10 (November 2019)
Current ranking 11 (as of 17 August 2020)
Career winnings£1,117,934
Highest break147 (2 times)
Century breaks282
Best ranking finishRunner-up (2015 International Championship, 2018 World Open, 2019 German Masters, 2019 English Open)
Tournament wins
Non-ranking1

On 22 January 2019 he hit the milestone of the 147th maximum break in the Championship League.[2] On 4 May 2019 he narrowly missed out on his first ever World Snooker Championship final in a final frame decider, losing out 16–17 to John Higgins.

Snooker career

Early career

Gilbert began his professional career by playing UK Tour in 1999, at the time the second-level professional tour.[3] In the 2007–08 season Gilbert reached the last 32 of three tournaments without progressing further. Most notably he qualified for the 2007 World Championship where he led Stephen Hendry 1–5, before succumbing to a 10–7 defeat. To qualify he beat Alfie Burden, Gerard Greene and Mark King.

The other two were the 2007 Welsh Open – where he won his two qualifying matches then beat James Wattana in the last 48 in Newport, before losing 5–0 to Steve Davis[4] – and the 2008 Grand Prix, where he again faced Hendry and again challenged him before succumbing 5–4.

Gilbert went one better at the 2009 Welsh Open, beating Mark Williams and Joe Perry before losing to Mark Selby in the last 16.

2011/2012 season
2011 Paul Hunter Classic

The 2011–12 season was somewhat of a breakthrough year for Gilbert as he reached the last 16 in two ranking event tournaments for the first time. He went from qualifying round one to the venue stage of the first tournament of the year, the Australian Goldfields Open, beating Passakorn Suwannawat 5–4, Alfie Burden 5–2, Dave Harold 5–4 and Mark King 5–0 to set up a wildcard round match at the venue against James Mifsud, which was later changed to a last 32 encounter due to the withdrawal of Graeme Dott.[5] Gilbert won 5–1 to meet Mark Williams in the last 16, and was beaten 2–5.[6]

Gilbert struggled to replicate the form he showed in Australia until the final and biggest tournament on the snooker calendar, the World Championship. He qualified with victories over Stuart Carrington, Jimmy Robertson (with a final frame decider), Mike Dunn and Fergal O'Brien and drew 11th seed Martin Gould in the first round. There he won his first ever match at the Crucible 10–8, although he had to withstand two comebacks after leading 6–2 and 9–5.[7] In the second round he was defeated by 2010 World Champion, Neil Robertson 9–13. Gilbert had led 3–1 after the first four frames, but then trailed 3–5 and 6–10 after the first and second session respectively.[8] He finished the season ranked world number 57, inside the top 64 who automatically retained their places for the 2012–13 season.[9]

2012/2013 season
2012 Paul Hunter Classic

Following on from Gilbert's successful 2011/2012 season, he struggled for form this season as he could only qualify for the World Open in Haikou, China. There, he beat Lu Ning 5–0 in the wildcard round, before losing 4–5 to Matthew Stevens in the first round.[10] Gilbert played in eight of the ten minor-ranking Players Tour Championship events, but could only win three matches all year, to finish a lowly 86th on the Order of Merit.[11] He couldn't repeat last season's run to The Crucible as he was defeated 6–10 by Marco Fu in the final round of World Championship Qualifying.[12] He ended the campaign ranked world number 41.[13]

2013/2014 season

Gilbert's 2013–14 season was his most consistent year to date as he qualified for all but two of the ranking events. In his opening match, he defeated Jak Jones 5–3 to qualify for the 2013 Wuxi Classic in China where he beat Andrew Pagett 5–2 in the first round. He went on to beat Alan McManus 5–2 to reach the last 16 of ranking event for the fourth time, but lost 5–2 to Joe Perry.[14] A month later at the minor-ranking Rotterdam Open, he defeated Ryan Day 4–3 in the last 16 and Stephen Maguire 4–1 in the quarter-finals. Gilbert led Mark Selby 2–0 in his semi-final match, but was beaten 4–3.[15] The tournament was one of the eight European Tour events on the calendar and Gilbert performed well in the others with two further last 16 runs to finish 16th on the Order of Merit and qualify for the Finals for the first time in his career.[16] There, Gilbert gained revenge over Selby by whitewashing him 4–0, but lost 4–1 to Perry in the second round.[17][18]

Gilbert played in his third World Championship this year after seeing off Jimmy Robertson in the final round of qualifying.[19] He faced the previous year's runner-up Barry Hawkins in the first round but from 4–2 up he lost eight frames in a row to succumb to a 10–4 defeat in a performance he branded as useless.[20]

2014/2015 season
Gilbert at the 2015 German Masters

Gilbert lost 5–3 to Stephen Maguire in the first round of the 2014 Wuxi Classic and then failed to qualify for the next two ranking events.[21] At the International Championship he defeated Zak Surety 6–4, before withstanding three century breaks from Marco Fu to take the match into a deciding frame which Gilbert lost.[22] He won his first matches at the UK Championship 6–4 against Elliot Slessor and 6–2 against Mark Joyce, but lost in the third round 6–2 to David Morris. Gilbert was eliminated at the first round stage of the German Masters, Welsh Open and Indian Open.[21] He faced the winner of the previous ranking event Joe Perry at the China Open and won the last three frames to defeat him 5–3 and then saw off Zhou Yuelong 5–2 to reach the last 16 of a ranking event for the sixth time.[23] Gilbert's tournament ended with a 5–2 loss to reigning world champion Mark Selby.[24] Gilbert was ranked 35th after the World Championship, the highest he had finished a season at that time.[25]

2015/2016 season

Gilbert was eliminated in the qualifying rounds of the opening two ranking events of the season.[26] At the minor-ranking Ruhr Open he won four matches to play in the quarter-finals where he beat Barry Hawkins 4–2, before losing 4–3 to Tian Pengfei in the semis.[27] Gilbert's form continued later in to the month at the International Championship as he knocked out Xiao Guodong 6–5, Oliver Lines 6–4 and Ryan Day 6–4 to play in the first ranking event quarter-final of his career. He came back from 4–2 down against Marco Fu to edge it 6–5 which included a 130 break and then saw off Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 9–5.[28][29] In the final, Gilbert was level with John Higgins at 4–4, but would lose 9–5. The £65,000 runner-up's cheque is by far the biggest of his career and he moved up to 21st in the world rankings afterwards.[30] Gilbert stated that his new found form was down to a new cue he acquired from fellow professional Matthew Selt six weeks previously.[28] Gilbert was knocked out in the third round of both the UK Championship and China Open 6–3 to Marco Fu and 5–3 to Higgins respectively.[26] Gilbert won three matches to qualify for the World Championship and faced Ronnie O'Sullivan in the first round. He was defeated 10–7, but said it was the best he had ever played without winning a match.[31] He moved up to world number 22 at the end of the season.[32]

2016/2017 season
2016 Paul Hunter Classic

Gilbert saw off Rod Lawler 5–0, Zhou Yuelong 5–2 and Zhang Anda 5–0 to play in the quarter-finals of the World Open, where he was beaten 5–2 by Neil Robertson.[33] He had a pair of 6–2 victories over Adam Duffy and Mark Joyce at the UK Championship and made two centuries from 3–0 down against Ali Carter to edge through 6–5.[34] Gilbert lost 6–2 to Jamie Jones in the fourth round. He won two matches to qualify for the German Masters and eliminated Marco Fu 5–3 in the first round, but was then defeated 5–4 by Stuart Bingham despite holding a 4–2 advantage at one stage.[35][36] After being 6–1 up on Fergal O'Brien in the final qualifying round for the World Championship the scores were locked at 9–9. The decider took 123 minutes and 41 seconds, breaking the record for the longest frame in snooker history, with O'Brien taking it on the final brown.[37] Nevertheless, his end of season ranking of 19 is the highest he has ever ended a campaign.[38]

Personal life

He is married to his wife Abigail and they have a daughter. He often helps out on his father's potato and general farm in Staffordshire and had planned to do so during the 2007 World Championships, had he not qualified for the event.[39]

Performance and rankings timeline
Tournament 1997/
98		 1998/
99		 2001/
02		 2002/
03		 2003/
04		 2004/
05		 2005/
06		 2006/
07		 2007/
08		 2008/
09		 2009/
10		 2010/
11		 2011/
12		 2012/
13		 2013/
14		 2014/
15		 2015/
16		 2016/
17		 2017/
18		 2018/
19		 2019/
20
Ranking[40][nb 1] [nb 2] [nb 2] [nb 2] [nb 3] 84 [nb 2] [nb 3] 66 45 43 51 55 76 57 41 37 35 22 18 27 12
Ranking tournaments
Riga Masters[nb 4] Tournament Not Held Minor-Rank. 3R 1R 1R LQ
International Championship Tournament Not Held LQ 2R 2R F 1R 1R 3R 3R
China Championship Tournament Not Held NR 2R 1R QF
English Open Tournament Not Held 3R 2R 2R F
World Open[nb 5] A A A LQ LQ A LQ LQ LQ 1R LQ LQ LQ 1R 1R Not Held QF QF F QF
Northern Ireland Open NH A Tournament Not Held 3R 4R QF 1R
UK Championship A A A LQ LQ A LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R 3R 3R 4R 2R 3R 1R
Scottish Open[nb 6] A A A 1R LQ Tournament Not Held MR Not Held 1R 1R 2R SF
European Masters[nb 7] Not Held A LQ LQ A LQ LQ NR Tournament Not Held 1R 3R 1R LQ
German Masters[nb 8] A NR Tournament Not Held LQ LQ LQ 1R 1R LQ 2R 1R F LQ
World Grand Prix Tournament Not Held NR 1R 1R 1R QF 1R
Welsh Open A A A LQ LQ A LQ 2R 1R 2R LQ LQ LQ LQ 2R 1R 2R 1R 1R 1R 1R
Shoot-Out Tournament Not Held Non-Ranking Event QF 2R 2R 2R
Players Championship[nb 9] Tournament Not Held DNQ DNQ DNQ 2R DNQ 1R DNQ DNQ 1R 1R
Gibraltar Open Tournament Not Held MR 3R A QF WD
Tour Championship Tournament Not Held DNQ DNQ
World Championship LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R LQ LQ LQ LQ 2R LQ 1R LQ 1R LQ LQ SF 1R
Non-ranking tournaments
Paul Hunter Classic Tournament Not Held Pro-am Event Minor-Ranking Event Ranking Event QF
Shanghai Masters Not Held Ranking Event A 2R
The Masters A A LQ LQ LQ A A A LQ LQ LQ A A A A A A A A A SF
Championship League Tournament Not Held A A A A A A A RR RR 2R RR WD RR
Variant format tournaments
Six-red World Championship Tournament Not Held A A A NH A A A A 1R QF RR QF
Former ranking tournaments
British Open A A A LQ LQ A Tournament Not Held
Irish Masters Non-Ranking Event LQ LQ A NH NR Tournament Not Held
Northern Ireland Trophy Tournament Not Held NR LQ 1R 2R Tournament Not Held
Bahrain Championship Tournament Not Held LQ Tournament Not Held
Wuxi Classic[nb 10] Tournament Not Held Non-Ranking Event LQ 3R 1R Tournament Not Held
Australian Goldfields Open Tournament Not Held 2R LQ LQ LQ LQ Not Held
Shanghai Masters Tournament Not Held LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R LQ LQ 2R 2R Non-Rank.
Paul Hunter Classic[nb 11] Tournament Not Held Pro-am Event Minor-Ranking Event 2R 3R A NR
Indian Open Tournament Not Held WD 1R NH LQ QF 1R NH
China Open[nb 12] NR A A Not Held A LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ 3R 3R 1R 2R 2R NH
Former non-ranking tournaments
Shoot-Out Tournament Not Held A A 1R 2R 1R 2R Ranking Event
Performance Table Legend
LQ lost in the qualifying draw #R lost in the early rounds of the tournament
(WR = Wildcard round, RR = Round robin)		 QF lost in the quarter-finals
SF lost in the semi-finals F lost in the final W won the tournament
DNQ did not qualify for the tournament A did not participate in the tournament WD withdrew from the tournament
NH / Not Heldmeans an event was not held.
NR / Non-Ranking Eventmeans an event is/was no longer a ranking event.
R / Ranking Eventmeans an event is/was a ranking event.
RV / Ranking & Variant Format Eventmeans an event is/was a ranking & variant format event.
MR / Minor-Ranking Eventmeans an event is/was a minor-ranking event.
PA / Pro-am Eventmeans an event is/was a pro-am event.
VF / Variant Format Eventmeans an event is/was a variant format event.
  1. From the 2010/2011 season it shows the ranking at the beginning of the season.
  2. He was not on the Main Tour.
  3. New players don't have a ranking.
  4. The event was called the Riga Open (2014/2015–2015/2016)
  5. The event was called the Grand Prix (1997/1998–2000/2001 and 2004/2005–2009/2010), the LG Cup (2001/2002–2003/2004) and the Haikou World Open (2011/2012–2013/2014)
  6. The event was called the International Open (1997/1998) and the Players Championship (2003/2004)
  7. The event was called the Malta Cup (2004/2005–2007/2008)
  8. The event was called the German Open (1997/1998)
  9. The event was called the Players Tour Championship Grand Finals (2010/2011–2012/2013) and the Players Championship Grand Final (2013/2014–2015/2016)
  10. The event was called the Jiangsu Classic (2008/2009–2009/2010)
  11. The event was called the Grand Prix Fürth (2004/2005) and the Fürth German Open (2005/2006–2006/2007)
  12. The event was called the China International (1997/1998–1998/1999)

Career finals

Ranking finals: 4 (4 runners-up)
Outcome No Year Championship Opponent in the final Score
Runner-up 1. 2015 International Championship John Higgins 5–10
Runner-up 2. 2018 World Open Mark Williams 9–10
Runner-up 3. 2019 German Masters Kyren Wilson 7–9
Runner-up 4. 2019 English Open Mark Selby 1–9

Non-ranking finals: 1 (1 title)
Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final Score
Winner 1. 2002 Challenge Tour Event 4 Ryan Day 6–3
gollark: I may need to write a tool to automatically put in lambda calculus expressions for me because doing this by hand is so irritating.
gollark: Good news! I managed to get a Church numeral 2 and `succ`.
gollark: LC knowledge?
gollark: See, this is the best I can do.
gollark: Well, I can't work out how to repeat the binding neatly yet.

References
  1. Beardmore, Michael (17 April 2016). "SNOOKER: Tamworth potter Gilbert trails 'Rocket' Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-3 at Crucible". Tamworth Herald. Archived from the original on 13 May 2016. Retrieved 13 May 2016.
  2. https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/23/david-gilbert-hits-147th-maximum-break-snooker-history-championship-league-8378417/
  3. "David Gilbert – Season 1998/1999". Archived from the original on 26 April 2012. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
  4. "World Snooker - David Gilbert". Archived from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved 5 June 2011.
  5. "Australian Goldfields Open (2011)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
  6. "David Gilbert 2011/2012". Snooker.org. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
  7. "World Snooker Championship 2012: Mark Allen out in round one". BBC Sport. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
  8. "World Snooker Championship 2012: Robertson beats Gilbert". BBC Sport. 27 April 2012. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
  9. "Official World Ranking List for the 2012/2013 Season" (PDF). World Snooker. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 August 2012. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
  10. "David Gilbert 2012/2013". Snooker.org. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
  11. "Order of Merit 2012/2013". Snooker.org. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
  12. "Betfair World Championship Qualifiers". Snooker.org. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
  13. "Official World Snooker Ranking List for the 2013/2014 Season" (PDF). World Snooker. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 June 2013. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  14. "David Gilbert 2013/2014". Snooker.org. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  15. "Selby to meet Williams in Rotterdam Open final". Eurosport. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  16. "European Order of Merit 2013/2014". Snooker.org. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  17. "Selby White-Washed By Gilbert". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 19 April 2014. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  18. "Snooker – O'Sullivan dealt first defeat of year". Eurosport. Archived from the original on 17 April 2014. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  19. "Dott / Williams / Stevens Miss Crucible". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 18 April 2014. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  20. "World Championship 2014: David Gilbert angered by display". BBC Sport. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  21. "David Gilbert 2014/2015". Snooker.org. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
  22. "Three-Ton Rocket Crushes McGill". World Snooker. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
  23. "Selby Wins Despite Neck Pain". World Snooker. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
  24. "World champion Selby ends Gilbert's run at China Open". Tamworth Herald. Trinity Mirror Midlands. Archived from the original on 4 April 2015. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
  25. "World Rankings After 2015 World Championship". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 7 May 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  26. "David Gilbert 2015/2016". Snooker.org. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  27. "Rory Rules in Ruhr". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 14 November 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  28. "Un-Nooh to Meet Gilbert in Semis". World Snooker. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  29. "David Gilbert makes International Championship final". Eurosport. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  30. "Higgins Equals Davis Tally". World Snooker. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  31. "O'Sullivan Comes Through Gilbert Test". World Snooker. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  32. "Historic Seedings After 2016 World Championship". Snooker.org. Retrieved 24 September 2016.
  33. "David Gilbert 2016/2017". Snooker.org. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  34. "UK Championship 2016: David Gilbert says luck helped him beat Ali Carter". BBC Sport. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  35. "Marco Fu makes early German Masters exit after going down to David Gilbert in opening round". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  36. "Stuart Bingham stages comeback to beat David Gilbert, Mark Selby crashes out". Eurosport. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  37. "O'Brien Wins Record Two-Hour Frame". World Snooker. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  38. "Rankings 2016/2017". Snooker.org. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
  39. "David Gilbert". World Snooker Live Scoring. Archived from the original on 12 May 2012. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
  40. "Ranking History". Snooker.org. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
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