Gareth Allen

{{Infobox snooker player

|name = Gareth Allen

|image = Gareth Allen PHC 2015-1.jpg

|caption = Paul Hunter Classic 2015

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1988|9|9|df=yes}}

| Sport country = {{WAL}}

| Professional = 2015–2017

| High ranking = 86 (June 2016){{cite web|title=WORLD RANKINGS After 2016 Kaspersky Riga Masters|url=http://www.worldsnooker.com/rankings/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160701154059/http://www.worldsnooker.com/rankings/|url-status=dead|archive-date=1 July 2016|website=World Snooker|access-date=1 July 2016}}

| Official maximums =

| Best finish =

| Ranking wins =

| World champ =

}}

Gareth Allen (born 9 September 1988 in Mynydd Isa, near Buckley, Flintshire) is a Welsh former professional snooker player.

Career

Allen started playing snooker aged three,{{cite web|title=Gareth Allen|url=http://www.prosnookerblog.com/players/a-c/gareth-allen/|publisher=Pro Snooker Blog|access-date=28 May 2015}} joining his local snooker club and playing on full sized table at twelve. In a lengthy amateur career, Allen made his debut for the Welsh international side aged eighteen, where he reached the last 16 of the 2010 Amateur World Snooker Championship and narrowly missed out on a professional tour card in 2013, where he lost in the final to Robin Hull in the EBSA European Snooker Championships. He was also a regular competitor in Players Tour Championship events, where in the professional rounds he beat pros such as Kurt Maflin, Alfie Burden, Andrew Norman, Joel Walker and Nigel Bond.

He was also a regular competitor in the end of season Q School events since their introduction and in 2012 he lost in a quarter-final match against Paul Davison, which would have gained him pro tour status had he won.{{cite web|title=2012 Q School - Event 2|url=http://www.cuetracker.net/Tournaments/Q-School-Event-2/2012/353|publisher=CueTracker Snooker Results & Statistics Database|access-date=28 May 2015}} However, his run did enable him to feature in several ranking events during the 2012–13 season, with the highlight being a win over then top 32 player Rory McLeod 4–2 in qualifying in his home event the 2013 Welsh Open. His next match against John Higgins was televised, which he lost 4–1.{{cite web|title=Gareth Allen|url=http://garethallen.weebly.com/about.html|publisher=Gareth Allen|access-date=28 May 2015}}

File:Gareth Allen PHC 2015-2.jpg

Allen was successful in the 2015 Q School and earned a tour card for the 2015–16 and 2016–17 seasons by beating Alex Taubman 4–2 in his final match of the second event.{{cite web|url=http://www.worldsnooker.com/q-school-event-two-winners/|title=Q School Event Two Winners|publisher=World Snooker|date=28 May 2015}} He won his first match as a professional by beating Adam Edge 5–3 in Australian Goldfields Open qualifying, but lost 5–1 to Jamie Burnett in the second round. Allen saw off Barry Pinches and Aditya Mehta both 5–1 in the qualifying rounds for the Shanghai Masters, before losing by a reversal of this scoreline to Li Hang. He made his debut at the venue stage of a ranking event in York for the UK Championship and was defeated 6–1 by Liang Wenbo. Allen then lost 15 successive matches from August 2015 until the start of the 2016–17 season, when he beat Kurt Maflin 4–3 to qualify for the Riga Masters.{{cite web | url=http://www.snooker.org/res/index.asp?player=269&season=2015 | title=Gareth Allen 2015/2016 | publisher=Snooker.org | access-date=7 April 2016}}{{cite web | url=http://www.snooker.org/res/index.asp?season=2016&player=269 | title=Gareth Allen 2016/2017 | publisher=Snooker.org | access-date=19 August 2016}} Allen won a match at the venue stage of a ranking event for the first time by edging past Ross Muir 4–3 in the opening round of the Scottish Open and then lost 4–3 to Mike Dunn.{{cite web|title=Gareth Allen 2016/2017|url=http://www.snooker.org/res/index.asp?player=269&season=2016|publisher=Snooker.org|access-date=16 March 2017}} A 5–4 win over Robin Hull saw him qualify for the China Open, where he was beaten 5–0 by Ronnie O'Sullivan in the second round.{{cite web|url=http://www.eurosport.co.uk/snooker/china-open/2016-2017/ronnie-osullivan-flies-into-second-round-in-china_sto6109867/story.shtml|title=Ronnie O'Sullivan flies into second round in China|publisher=Eurosport|access-date=11 April 2017}} Allen fell off the tour at the end of the season as he was placed 110th in the world rankings.

Following his relegation from the tour, Allen announced his retirement from the game and started coaching after gaining his coaching qualification through the WPBSA.{{cite web|title=Rankings 2016/2017|url=http://www.snooker.org/res/index.asp?season=2016&template=31|publisher=Snooker.org|access-date=7 May 2017}}

Performance and rankings timeline

class="wikitable" style="font-size:85%;"

! Tournament

style="background:#EFEFEF;"| Ranking{{cite web|title=Ranking History|url=http://www.snooker.org/rnk/history.asp|publisher=Snooker.org|access-date=6 February 2011}}It shows the ranking at the beginning of the season.

| align="center" |He was an amateur.

| align="center" |

| align="center" |New players on the Main Tour don't have a ranking.

| align="center" |112

colspan="9" | Ranking tournaments

style="background:#EFEFEF;"| Riga MastersThe event was called the Riga Open (2014/2015–2015/2016)

|colspan="4" style="text-align:center; color:#555555;"| Tournament Not Held

|colspan="2" style="text-align:center; color:#555555;"| Minor-Rank.

|style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R

style="background:#EFEFEF;"|Indian Open

|colspan="3" style="text-align:center;color:#555555;"|Not Held

|align="center" style="color:#555555;"| A

|align="center" style="color:#555555;"| NH

|align="center" style="color:#555555;"| LQ

style="background:#EFEFEF;"| World Open

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| A

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| LQ

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| A

|colspan="2" style="text-align:center; color:#555555;"|Not Held

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| LQ

style="background:#EFEFEF;"| Paul Hunter Classic

|colspan="6" style="text-align:center;color:#555555;"| Minor-Ranking Event

|align="center" style="background:#afeeee;"|1R

style="background:#EFEFEF;"| Shanghai Masters

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| A

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| LQ

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| A

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| LQ

style="background:#EFEFEF;" | European Masters

|colspan="6" align="center" style="color:#555555;"|Tournament Not Held

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| LQ

style="background:#EFEFEF;" | English Open

|colspan="6" align="center" style="color:#555555;"|Tournament Not Held

|style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R

style="background:#EFEFEF;"| International Championship

| align="center" colspan="2" style="color:#555555;"| Not Held

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| LQ

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| A

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| LQ

style="background:#EFEFEF;" | Northern Ireland Open

|colspan="6" align="center" style="color:#555555;"|Tournament Not Held

|style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R

style="background:#EFEFEF;"| UK Championship

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| A

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| LQ

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| A

|align="center" style="background:#afeeee;"|1R

style="background:#EFEFEF;" | Scottish Open

|colspan="2" align="center" style="color:#555555;"|Not Held

|align="center" style="color:#555555;"|MR

|colspan="3" align="center" style="color:#555555;"|Tournament Not Held

|align="center" style="background:#afeeee;"|2R

style="background:#EFEFEF;"| German Masters

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| A

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| LQ

style="background:#EFEFEF;"|World Grand Prix

|colspan="4" style="text-align:center;color:#555555;"|Tournament Not Held

|align="center" style="color:#555555;"|NR

|align="center" style="color:#555555;"|DNQ

style="background:#EFEFEF;"| Welsh Open

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| A

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| LQ

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| A

| align="center" style="background:#afeeee;"|1R

style="background:#EFEFEF;"| Gibraltar Open

|align="center" colspan="5" style="color:#555555;"| Tournament Not Held

|style="text-align:center; color:#555555;"| MR

|align="center" style="background:#afeeee;"|1R

style="background:#EFEFEF;"| Players ChampionshipThe event was called the Players Tour Championship Grand Finals (2010/2011–2015/2016)

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| DNQ

style="background:#EFEFEF;"| China Open

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| A

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| LQ

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| A

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| LQ

| align="center" style="background:#afeeee;"|1R

style="background:#EFEFEF;"| World Championship

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| A

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| LQ

colspan="9" | Non-ranking tournaments

style="background:#EFEFEF;" | Six-red World ChampionshipThe event was called the Six-red Snooker International (2008/2009)

|align="center" style="color:#555555;"|A

|align="center" style="color:#555555;"|NH

|align="center" style="color:#555555;"|A

|align="center" style="background:#afeeee;"|RR

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| A

colspan="10" | Former ranking tournaments

style="background:#EFEFEF;"| Australian Goldfields Open

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| NH

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| A

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| LQ

| align="center" style="color:#555555;"| NH

class="wikitable" style="font-size:78%;"

bgcolor="#efefef"

! colspan="6"|Performance Table Legend

align="center" style="color:#555555;" width="30"|LQ

| lost in the qualifying draw

| align="center" style="background:#afeeee;"|#R

| lost in the early rounds of the tournament
(WR = Wildcard round, RR = Round robin)

| align="center" style="background:#ffebcd;"|QF

| lost in the quarter-finals

align="center" style="background:yellow;"|SF

| lost in the semi-finals

| align="center" style="background:#D8BFD8;"|F

| lost in the final

| align="center" style="background:#00ff00;"|W

| won the tournament

align="center" style="color:#555555;" width="30"|DNQ

| did not qualify for the tournament

| align="center" style="color:#555555;" width="30"|A

| did not participate in the tournament

| align="center" style="color:#555555;" width="30"|WD

| withdrew from the tournament

class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%"
style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" colspan="4"\|NH / Not Held	means an event was not held.
style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" colspan="4"\|NR / Non-Ranking Event	means an event is/was no longer a ranking event.
style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" colspan="4"\|R / Ranking Event	means an event is/was a ranking event.
style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" colspan="4"\|MR / Minor-Ranking Event	means an event is/was a minor-ranking event.