Nigel Bond

Nigel Bond

File:Nigel Bond PHC 2012.jpg Nigel Bond at the 2012 Paul Hunter Classic.
Born	(1965-11-15) 15 November 1965 Darley Dale, Derbyshire
Sport country	England
Nickname	Basildon 00-147
Professional	1989–
Highest ranking	5 (96/97)
Current ranking	84 (as of 2 May 2016)
Career winnings	£1,685,675
Highest break	140 (2004 Grand Prix Qualifying)
Century breaks	116
Tournament wins
Ranking	1
Non-ranking	5

Nigel Bond

Medal record
Representing United Kingdom
Men's Snooker
World Games
	2009 Kaohsiung	Individual

File:Nigel Bond at Snooker German Masters (DerHexer) 2013-01-30 02.jpg

Nigel Bond at the 2013 German Masters

Nigel Bond (born 15 November 1965 in Darley Dale, Derbyshire) is an English professional snooker player.

Bond has competed on the main tour since 1989, and was ranked within the world's top 16 players between 1992 and 1999, peaking at 5th for the 1996/1997 season. He reached the final of the World Championship in 1995, where he lost 9–18 to Stephen Hendry, and won the 1996 British Open, defeating John Higgins 9–8.

Having reached the final of three other ranking tournaments, Bond won his second professional title at the 2011 Snooker Shoot-Out and, in 2012, defeated Tony Chappel to win the World Seniors Championship. He was the oldest member of the world's top 32 for the 2008/2009 season, aged 43, and retained his place in the top 64 until 2015.

Bond is noted as one of the best users of the swan neck rest.

Career

He was born in Darley Dale, Derbyshire.

After a strong amateur career, Bond turned professional for the 1989–1990 season. He reached his first ranking semi-final in his first season, and his first final in his second season, but his career peaked in the mid-1990s. In the 1994 World Championships, Bond pulled off one of the biggest comebacks in the event's history, rallying from 9–2 to defeat Cliff Thorburn 10–9 in what would be Thorburn's final appearance at the Crucible. A year later, Bond reached the final after beating Stephen Lee, Alan McManus, Gary Wilkinson and Andy Hicks, but lost to Stephen Hendry 18–9. This was his only semi-final run of the season. As a consequence of reaching the final, he climbed to number 5 in the world rankings for 1996/97, and in that same season he acquired his only ranking tournament victory (after three previous losing finals), the British Open, beating John Higgins 9–8 after needing a snooker in the final frame, winning the World Snooker Association Performance of the Year award for this achievement, although he has failed to maintain this level of performance. He reached at least the quarter finals at the Crucible Theatre every year from 1993 to 1996, losing to Stephen Hendry every time, which added extra spice to their first round match in 2006. After leading comfortably throughout the match Bond was pegged back to 7–7, and the match went to a final frame. With only the black remaining, and 7 points up, Bond clipped it into the left corner pocket, only for the cue ball to go in-off in the right middle pocket, resulting in a respotted black (the first one ever to decide the final frame of a World Championship match), which Bond potted to take frame and match. Final score 10–9, Bond's first win at the Crucible since 1999, and his only last-16 run of that season.

By the end of the 1990s, Bond was out of the top 16, and dropped out of the top 32 for the 2004–2005 season. However, he reclaimed his place a year later, and he has remained there ever since as of 2009. In the 2007 World Championship he lost in the first round, 10–7 to Peter Ebdon.

A run to the last 16 of the 2007 UK Championships, in which he came from 5–7 to win 9–7 against Ken Doherty in the last 32 before losing 9–6 to Ding Junhui in the last 16, was a precursor to his first quarter-final run for 5 years, at the China Open. Victories over David Roe, Stephen Lee and Barry Pinches took him to a meeting with Stephen Maguire, which he lost 5–0.

He opened the 2008/09 season with first-round defeats in the first five tournaments, but victory over Ebdon in the first round of the World Championship ensured that he didn't lose his top 32 status.

On 30 January 2011, Bond won the Snooker Shoot-Out event. This involved the top 64 players in the world playing 10-minute matches decided on a single frame. He picked up the £32,000 prize money as well as the Snooker Shoot-Out trophy, beating Robert Milkins 58–24 in the final.

Bond started the 2011/2012 season very well by qualifying for the first two ranking event tournaments, the Australian Goldfields Open and the Shanghai Masters. He lost to Neil Robertson and Mark Selby respectively in the first round. He also qualified for the World Open, but was defeated by amateur player Lu Ning in the wildcard round. Bond finished the season ranked world number 45.

Bond once again qualified for the Australian Goldfields Open in the 2012/2013 season, but lost to Neil Robertson 1–5 in the last 32. In December, he reached the World Open in Haikou, China, with wins over Jimmy White and Jamie Burnett. At the venue he saw off Zhu Yinghui 5–3 in the wildcard round and received a bye through to the last 16 due to the withdrawal of Ali Carter. There he lost 1–5 to Judd Trump. Bond was also crowned World Seniors champion during the season without dropping a frame in a total of seven matches, concluding with a 2–0 victory against Tony Chappel in the final. Bond's season ended when he was beaten 8–10 by Alan McManus in the third round of World Championship Qualifying. He dropped a solitary place during the year to end it ranked world number 46.

Bond reached the final of the World Seniors Championship for the second year in the a row in the 2013/2014 season, losing 2–1 to Steve Davis. He only won two matches at the main venue of ranking events all season, his best run coming in the China Open, where he beat Barry Pinches 5–2 before Mark Selby defeated Bond 5–1 in the last 32. He fell 11 spots from the start of the season to end it as the world number 57.

Bond produced a superb comeback in the second round of the 2014 UK Championship, as from 5–0 down against world number five Barry Hawkins he took six successive frames to advance. However, in the third round Anthony McGill recovered from 4–1 down to eliminate Bond 6–5. The furthest Bond could progress in a ranking event this season was at the Indian Open, where he beat Ryan Day 4–1 and Dechawat Poomjaeng 4–3, before losing 4–1 to Chris Wakelin in the last 16. He just fell outside the top 64 at the end of the year as he was 65th, but Bond has earned a two-year extension via the European Order of Merit.

Personal life

Bond was brought up in Darley Dale, where he attended Churchtown Primary School. Bond is interested in football, supporting Manchester City.

Career finals

Ranking event finals: 5 (1 title, 4 runner-ups)

Legend

World Championship (0–1)

UK Championship (0–0)

Other (1–3)

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score
Runner-up	1.	1990	Grand Prix	Stephen Hendry	5–10
Runner-up	2.	1995	World Snooker Championship	Stephen Hendry	9–18
Runner-up	3.	1995	Thailand Classic	John Parrott	6–9
Winner	1.	1996	British Open	John Higgins	9–8
Runner-up	4.	1997	Thailand Open	Peter Ebdon	7–9

Non-ranking wins:(5 titles)

• Scottish Masters – 1997
• Malta Grand Prix – 1996
• Red & White Challenge – 1995
• Kings Cup – 1993
• World Seniors Championship – 2012

Other wins:(1 title)

• Snooker Shoot-Out – 2011

External links

• Nigel Bond at CueTracker.net: Snooker Results and Statistic Database
• Player Profile on Pro Snooker Blog
• Profile on Yahoo! Sport

• Profile on World Snooker