Career Dave Harold

1 career

1.1 career
1.2 top 16 (1996–2002)
1.3 2003–2015

career
early career

soon after turning professional, harold won 1993 asian open, beating darren morgan 9–3 in final. ranked 93rd in world @ time, became lowest-ranked player ever win ranking tournament. never repeated achievement, although reached second ranking final in 1994 grand prix, losing 6–9 john higgins.

top 16 (1996–2002)

after 1994 harold did not reach third ranking final until 2008, although has career reached total of ten semi-finals in ranking tournaments date, , top-16 player 4 seasons between 1995/1996 , 2001/2002, reaching career-best position of no. 11 in world rankings in 1996/97 season. in 1996 welsh open, lost in semi-finals, 1–6, eventual winner mark williams.

he contended in first , world championship quarter-final in 1996 event, lost 7–13 nigel bond. lost 5–6 bond in 1996 british open semi-final less 2 weeks earlier.

in 1998 grand prix, knocked out stephen hendry , john higgins en route semi-finals, lost narrowly eventual champion stephen lee. 1998 saw him reach first semi-final in uk championship, defeated 9–7 matthew stevens.

in 1999 grand prix harold led mark williams 5–3 in semi-finals lost 5–6. harold s last ranking semi-final until 2008, although reached semis in non-ranking 2001 masters, defeating john higgins , john parrott, losing semi-final 5–6 eventual runner-up fergal o brien after having led 5–1.

2003–2015

following poor season in 2001–2002, harold dropped out of top 16, down number 29 in world rankings. broken wrist sustained on new year s eve 2003 saw him drop further down rankings, out of top 32, although had better 2005/2006 season. consistent season in 2006/2007 helped harold no. 30 in world rankings 2007/2008.

2007/2008 started quarter-final appearance in shanghai masters, losing eventual winner dominic dale. harold did not past round robin phase of grand prix, finishing fifth in group of 6 players; in 2007 uk championship, harold eliminated world number 2 graeme dott 9–7 in first round achieve place in last 16 of tournament first time since 1999. however, lost 2–9 in second round mark selby. qualified final stages of world championship 10–4 win on mike dunn, lost 10–3 @ crucible in first round proper shaun murphy.

during preliminary round match against local wildcard jin long in 2008 china open, harold locked @ 4–4. took time out before deciding frame leave playing arena , consume couple of bananas, returning replenished finish job clearance on colours. gave rise affectionate nickname bananaman on betfair snooker forum, referring children s tv character gained superhuman powers. harold put battle against shaun murphy in next round, lost 5–3; last frame set record @ time being longest ever in snooker history (93 minutes , 12 seconds).

harold retained top 32 ranking, , started 2008/2009 season ranked @ #28, highest ranking since 2003. in first ranking event of new season, 2008 northern ireland trophy, beat ricky walden 5–2, graeme dott 5–3, stephen lee 5–4 , defending champion stephen maguire reach semi-finals, first appearance @ stage of ranking event 5 years. moved 5–1 lead against john higgins , won 6–4, reach first final since 1994, lost 9–3 ronnie o sullivan. harold s performance in tournament moved him 14th in provisional world rankings. harold remarked after final that, aside claiming world championship, 1 other remaining ambition in game score victory on o sullivan, has never beaten in ranking tournament. 2008 northern ireland trophy marked tenth consecutive failure so.

harold subsequently qualified 2008 shanghai masters , grand prix. in former, defeated home favourite ding junhui in last 32, before losing 4–5 (from 3–0 , 4–1 up) against steve davis; however, in latter eliminated in first round ali carter. less successful run of results in second half of season saw him fall out of top 16 in provisional rankings, largely due failure qualify 2009 world championship, although started 2009/2010 season ranked @ no. 19, improvement of 9 places on previous season.

harold appeared in welsh open in january 2010 lost in first round 5–1 stephen hendry. in september beat shaun murphy 3–0 in newly formed world open in glasgow subsequently lost in next round jamie cope 3–2.

dave harold @ 2013 german masters.

the 2012/2013 season saw harold win 2 qualifying matches reach main stages of 2012 wuxi classic, however, lost wildcard match chinese player rouzi maimaiti. harold subsequently failed qualify next 4 ranking events, losing players such ali carter, barry hawkins, , cao yupeng. did, however, qualify german masters, beating craig steadman 5–3 , ryan day 5–4 qualify last 32 of event, lost 3–5 former world champion graeme dott. won 1 more match in ranking event qualifiers rest of season, culminating 9–10 defeat alfie burden in qualifying world championship. harold played in many of players tour championship event throughout season, best results being 3 last 16 appearances, , further 2 last 32 results, finishing 39th on order of merit, outside of top 26 qualified finals.

harold started 2013/2014 season ranked 50th in world rankings. retired in may 2015 after suffering eyesight problems.