| Player Profile: Nigel Bond
| Category: |
Professional |
|
| Name: |
Nigel Bond |
| Town / Country: |
Darley Dale |
| DoB: |
27/10/1968 |
| Club: |
Riley Cue Ball, Derby |
| High Break: |
139 - Twice |
| Best Ranking: |
5th (1996/97) 2005-6 WSA No. 27 |
| Biography: |
Nigel Bond's name first started to be noticed in the snooker press in the 1985/6 season when he won an amateur event with a first prize of £400. In 1986 he reached the final of the English Amateur championship losing out to Gary Wilkinson. In 1986/7 he won several amateur titles and was runner up in three major pro-ams, also reaching the Northern semi-final of the English Amateur. The following season he took three £1000 plus first prizes. He made a 139 total clearance in the Derbyshire League. A new record for that league and qualified for the professional ticket play-offs. There he beat Ian Black to gain his professional card for the 1989/90 season. As a swan song to his amateur career the won the English amateur championship beating Barry Pinches in the final.
In his first event as a professional, The Hong Kong Open, he reached the last 64 but had a first round exit in the next. However in his third event, the BCE International, he went all the way to the semi-final before losing to Stephen Hendry. He also made it to the quarter-finals of the European Open and the lat 16 of the Dubai Classic. All in all a very satisfactory debut season giving him a ranking of 39th. He followed this success by reaching the final of the 1990 Grand Prix final only to lose 10-5 to Hendry again. He reached the quarter-final of both the UK Championship and the Irish Masters and was up to 21st in the rankings after just two seasons.
In 1992/92 he reached four ranking semi-finals, the Grand Prix, Mercantile Credit Classic, Welsh and Strachan Opens losing to the eventual winner in three of them. He also made his first appearance at the Crucible but lost his opening match. Nevertheless he was now in the top 16 at number nine. He retained that position the following year after four quarter-finals including the world championship. He was becoming one of the hardest players to beat and again reached the Embassy quarter-finals in 1994. In his opening match there that season he achieved possibly the greatest comeback seen at that famous venue. He was 2-9 down to Cliff Thorburn but won eight frames in a row to win 10-9. Nigel reached the same stage in two other ranking events. He added a semi-final in the Scottish Masters and runner-up spot in the Pontins Professional. His other results were not quite as consistent as we had become used to and his ranking fell a couple of places.
It was a similar story in 1994/5 and when he arrived in Sheffield for the world championship he had only reached the last eight in two events and lost quite a few opening matches. At the Crucible however, he went all the way to the final to meet Stephen Hendry who had won the previous three in a row and four in all. He could not stop the Scot taking his fifth world title. The score was 18-9. His other mediocre results that season saw his ranking go down to 12th.
That world final seemed to give Nigel new found confidence and after winning a non-ranking event in Pakistan, he reached the final of the next season's opener, the Thailand Classic. He lost 9-6 to John Parrott but went on to the quarter-finals of the UK championship. In the spring of 1996 he gained his first, and to date only, ranking title when he won the British Open at Plymouth. In the final against John Higgins he won the deciding frame after requiring a snooker. He went on to Sheffield where he again performed well reaching the semi-finals and attained his highest ever ranking of 5th.
1996/7 started well. In October he won the invitation Rothman's Malta Grand Prix and in November reached the German Open semi-finals. In most of the other ranking events he failed to get beyond the last 16 but his best ever Benson & Hedges Masters result, a semi-final, was followed by another ranking final. This time he lost to Peter Ebdon in the Thailand Open. Losing his opener at the Crucible helped to drop his ranking back to 8h. He began the next season by taking the £60,000 first prize in the Regal Scottish Masters but on the ranking circuit he found victories hard to come by and only managed one quarter final. Problems at home were affecting his game. One of his children had a serious illness and naturally his mind was on this rather than his game. He failed to progress beyond the last sixteen in any ranking event in 1998/99 although he got to then semis of the Regal Masters. In the Irish Open however he achieved a personal milestone by becoming the sixteenth player to top £1 million in prize money. He had however now fallen out of the top 16.
Things got no better in 1999/2000 with his best being two last 16 spots and a drop of a further two ranking places. In 2000/01 things were no better with only reaching the last 16 on one occasion. Nevertheless he halted the slide and retained his 23rd position. Only twice in 2001/02 did he manage to get past his opening match, but in one of these, the Regal Scottish Open, he went all the way to the semi-final, his best result for five years and although he dropped to 30th in the rankings, there were some positive signs that he might be regaining some of his old form. As it happened however, despite reaching the Crucible stage of the 2003 world championships he dropped out of the top 32 at the end of the following season. |
Achievements: |
2003 UK Championship quarter final 1997 Thailand Open runner-up 1997 Regal Scottish Masters champion 1996 British Open champion
1996 Rothmans Malta Grand Prix champion
1995 Red & White Pakistan Challenge winner
1995 World Professional Championship runner-up
1995 Thailand Classic runner-up
1992 Kings Cup winner 1990 Grand Prix runner-up
1989 English Amateur champion
|
Chris Turner
May 2003 |
