World ranking: 10
Last five seasons: 16-28-36-22-17
Date of birth: 29-08-69
Lives: Failsworth, Manchester
Turned professional: 1991
Ranking tournament victories: 0
Last season�s prize money: �150,050
Career prize money: �474,507
Highest tournament break: 141

Joe Swail is becoming something of a Steel City specialist

After making his name at the Crucible in 2000, �The Outlaw� was again in fine form at the Embassy last season, claiming a semi-final berth for the second year in succession.

Following a lack-lustre campaign in the build up to the Sheffield showpiece, with quarter-final finishes in Cardiff and Aberdeen the pick, Swail had something to prove upon his return to The Crucible.

Famed for his dramatic fighbacks, Joe certainly didn�t disappoint en route to a semi-finals defeat at the hands of eventual winner Ronnie O�Sullivan.

He opened his account with a 10-9 victory over Sean Storey to set up a second-round clash with World Champion Mark Williams where, after trailing 8-3 and 11-7, Swail fought to clinch sensational 13-12 victory

Again it went to the wire in his quarter-final clash with friend and practice partner Patrick Wallace where �The Outlaw� trailed 6-2 before fighting back for victory.

His last-four heroics at The Crucible in 2000 had enabled him to become the first player to regain his top 16 place after dropping out of the 32 and Swail spoke of the changes he had made in order to improve his game.

�My mum helped me turn things around as she wanted me to do very well in snooker.

"I felt I owed it to her to get my head down and get back to the way I used to play,� explained Swail, who is 40 per cent deaf in both ears.

�My lifestyle had to change - some of the thing you wouldn�t believe.

"I would be in nightclubs and places - it was just a joke - the kind of thing a young kid would do.

"Now I�m getting up at 9am to practice, which was the time I used to be rolling in!�

Swail picked up a cheque for �70,000 - by far the highest of his 11-year professional career - and also received an Embassy Special Award for his resurgence in the rankings.

Yet it could all have been so different.

He looked certain to miss out on the Crucible when he trailed young Scot Stephen Maguire 9-6 in the final qualifying round at Preston.

But he regained his composure and rattled off the final four frames.

Swail seems ideally suited by the longer matches at the World Championships and, however he plays in the run up to the tournament, it will come as no surprise if he puts on another dramatic display in 2002.