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Peter Ebdon was one of the best juniors of his day, winning a
£1500 prize when only 16 in the National Handicap in the 1986/7
season. Over the next few seasons he became a regular winner of
amateur and pro-am events. The biggest of these was in the 1989
Pontins Open when he beat Ken Doherty to take the title. That
season he also won the Rothmans Amateur championship. The
following season a clutch of further titles followed along with
the IBSF World Under-21 championship. He continued winning in
1990/1and his name was never out of the snooker press. It was
consequently no surprise to anyone that he made an immediate
impact when he joined the professional ranks for the 1991/2
season along with some 300 odd other hopefuls.
In that season he only failed to reach the final stages of two
ranking events, reaching the last 16 of the Grand Prix and
qualifying for the Crucible at his first attempt. Sporting a
pony tail in those days, he came up against six times champion,
Steve Davis, in the opening round and caused a major upset by
beating him 10-4 and went on to the quarter-finals. He was, by
some way, the most successful of all the new professionals
achieving a ranking of 47 at the season’s end and was named the
WPBSA Young Player of the Year. Four last 16 places in ranking
events in 1992/3 put him into the top 32 at 21st although he did
not get beyond that stage.
He did not however have to wait long for his first ranking
victory. That came in the 1993 Grand Prix with a 9-6 victory
over Ken Doherty. He also reached the Regal Welsh semi-final
and the quarter final in Dubai to take him into the top 16 at
number ten, adding a quarter-final in the Masters along the way.
The following season saw him in his second ranking final, losing
out to Alan McManus in Dubai, along with semi-finals in the UK
and the Welsh and quarter-finals in Thailand and at the
Crucible. He beat Stephen Hendry to take the Irish Masters and
finished the season with the Pontins Professional title as well.
1995/6 was to prove his best season so far. Although he did not
win a ranking event, he was runner-up in three, including the
World Championship where he lost 12-18 to Stephen Hendry who had
also beaten him in the UK final a few months before. In
non-ranking events he won the invitational Malta Grand Prix, was
runner-up in the Scottish Masters and reached the semis of the
Charity Challenge, Pontins Professional and the Matchroom
League. His ranking soared to his best to date of third. In the
next season, despite collecting his second ranking title, the
Thailand Open, and winning the Scottish Masters, he lost four
opening round matches in ranking events and slipped to fifth.
By now married with a young family, Peter was also spending a
lot of time on his horse racing interests which include an
intense study of pedigree lines and his snooker began to suffer
a little. One semi and two quarter-finals was all he could
manage in 1997/8 and it was a similar story in 1998/9 with the
result that his ranking fell first to seventh and then to 13th.
Things looked up a little in 1999/2000 when he reached his first
ranking final for three years, losing out, to Hendry again, in
the British Open. This helped to halt his slide down the
rankings, and to form the basis for a major return to form in
2000/01.
He started the new season with a victory over Jimmy White in the
British Open final and only failed once to reach the last 16. In
the final event before the world championships, he took his
second ranking title of the season in the Scottish Open and went
to Sheffield with high hopes. After two hard fought victories he
lost out to the eventual winner, Ronnie O’Sullivan in the
quarter finals but he was back up to seventh in the rankings and
once again a major force in the game.
He began the 2001/02 season reaching the semi-final of the
Champions Cup but surprisingly lost his opener to Marco Fu in
the Scottish Masters. Reaching the final of the LG Cup where
Stephen Lee proved just too good followed a quarter-final in the
first ranking event, the British Open. Two more quarter-finals
and the semi-final of the Scottish Open were achieved by the
time world championships came round. He had also got to the
Irish Masters final. At Sheffield he won a tough opener against
Michael Judge and then comfortably beat Joe Perry and Anthony
Hamilton. He squeezed past Matthew Stevens in the deciding frame
of the semi-final to enter his second world final. Just as he
had been in 1996, his opponent was Stephen Hendry and this one
always looked like going all the way which it did. Peter held
his nerve in that 35th frame and lifted the world
championship trophy at last. As a consequence he was up to third
in the rankings which equalled his best ever six years before.
As often happens after winning the world title, the following
season was not as good as Peter would have hoped. He did however
manage two ranking semi-finals but nevertheless slipped back to
seventh place at the season’s end.
Peter has always been a hard player to beat and some feel that
the immense mental effort he puts into every match can sometimes
work to his disadvantage. Nevertheless he has now won over £2
million in prize money. He now has four children and these
together with his three racehorses take up most of his time away
from the snooker table.
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