Ian Preece

Ian Preece
birthday	23rd June 1982 (age 38)
nationality	Wales
professional	2003/04, 2006–2010, 2016–2018
Prize money	£ 85,086
Highest break	139 ( Shanghai Masters 2008 )
Century Breaks	28
Main tour successes
World championships	-
Ranking tournament victories	-
Minor tournament victories	-
World rankings
Highest WRL place	55 (2008)

Ian Preece (born June 23, 1982 ) is a Welsh snooker player from Newport .

Career

Ian Preece started playing snooker when he was 9 years old. He was successful at a young age and was Welsh youth champion several times. In 1998 he won the European Championship in the U 19 age group and a year later, at 17 years and 147 days, he was the youngest player to win the World Amateur Championship . Although he took part in the UK and Challenge Tour from 1998 , he did not qualify for the Snooker Main Tour until 2003 . In the same year he made it at the snooker world championship 2003 for the first time beyond the pre-qualification under the last 96. His first professional game snooker season 2003/04 was not very successful, however, only in the second half of the season he won his first games at the European Open against Andrew Higginson and Shaun Murphy, among others . At the world championship he was among the last 80 and previously defeated ex-world champion Joe Johnson in his last professional game 10-0. At the end of the season, however, was only 93rd place in the world rankings and he immediately dropped out of the Main Tour.

The immediate re-qualification failed, although he reached the quarter-finals twice on the Challenge Tour. It was not until 2006 that he achieved third place in the tour ranking and thus the Main Tour qualification in the new Pontin's International Open Series with three semi-finals and three quarter-finals in eight tournaments. In the 2006/07 season he had his first notable successes at the UK Championship , but then reached the main tournament with 48 players each at the Welsh Open and the China Open . 64th place in the ranking meant that he stayed on the tour. In the following year he was only able to repeat his entry into the third round at the UK Championship , but in the two-year ranking of the world rankings he rose to 55th place. In 2009 he made it into the last 32 of a professional tournament and once at the Welsh Open at the Shanghai Masters in qualifying round 4, but lost ground again in the world rankings. As 66th in the world rankings, he was only allowed to continue participating in professional operations thanks to a wildcard. In the 2009/10 season he managed only one victory in the increasingly fewer tournaments and the fall in the rankings in 95th place meant his second Main Tour out.

Ian Preece then withdrew from snooker for a time and even gave away his cue. Only after a long time did he find fun in the game again. In 2016, at the age of 33, he enrolled in Q School , and although he was eliminated once in the semi-finals and once in the round of 16, the Order of Merit gave him the right to start on the Main Tour for two years.

Season 2016/17

The sixth professional season started for him with two opening defeats. He lost 4-2 to Mike Dunn in qualifying for the Indian Open and defeated 5-5 to Yu Delu in qualifying for the World Open . The Shanghai Masters were a great success , where he defeated Englishman David Gilbert 2-5 in the last of the four qualifying rounds after defeating Darryl Hill 5-1, Yu Delu 5-3 and Chris Wakelin 5-2. At the following English Open he defeated Oliver Lines and Craig Steadman 4-1 each before losing to his compatriot Mark Williams in the round of 32 . At the Northern Ireland Open he was defeated 4-0 to Chinese Zhang Anda in the first round, and then lost to Graeme Dott 6-1 in the first round of the UK Championship . At the Scottish Open he defeated Michael Wild 4: 3 before losing to Robert Milkins 0: 4. In the qualification for the German Masters he was defeated by the Englishman Matthew Selt , shortly afterwards he lost his first round match at the Welsh Open with 1: 4 against John Astley . In the shoot-out he lost to Andrew Higginson 34:65 on points. He suffered another defeat in qualifying for the China Open , where he lost 5-1 to Tian Pengfei . At the Snooker World Championship he moved after a 10: 7 over Ian Burns in the second qualifying round, where he lost 8:10 to the Chinese Zhou Yuelong . Preece finished the season at number 101 in the world .

Season 2017/18

The 2017/18 season began for Preece with a 3: 4 defeat against Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in qualifying for the Riga Masters . In qualifying for the China Championship , he defeated Ricky Walden 5-0 before losing to David Grace 4-5 . At the Paul Hunter Classic, he lost 4-1 to Ken Doherty in the second round . In qualifying for the Indian Open he defeated Oliver Lines 4: 0, in the first main round he then lost 2: 4 to Michael Holt . At the World Open he lost to Joe Perry 2: 5. In qualifying for the European Masters he defeated Sanderson Lam 4: 1, in the first round of the main tournament he was defeated by Lü Haotian 2: 4. In the first round of the English Ope he defeated Mei Xiwen 4-0, before losing 4-2 to Aditya Mehta in round 2 . In the international championship he defeated the Englishman Mark Davis in qualification , then he was defeated by Tom Ford 5-6. At the Shanghai Masters he just barely survived the qualification, beating Oliver Lines 4: 5. In the first round he met John Higgins , who defeated him 1: 5. At the Northern Ireland Open he lost 4-1 to Jamie Curtis-Barrett , followed by a 6-2 defeat by Yu Delu in the first round of the UK Championship . He was also without a win at the Scottish Open , losing 4-1 to Zhou Yuelong in Round 1 . Another defeat followed in qualifying for the German Masters , where he lost 5-1 to Niu Zhuang . In the shoot-out he defeated the amateur player Oliver Brown before losing to Stuart Carrington 21:81 on points . At the Welsh Open , he defeated Zhao Xintong 4-2 in round 1 , then lost 4-0 to Robbie Williams . At the Gibraltar Open he lost 3: 4 to Rory McLeod in the first round . At the China Open he lost to Mark Williams . In the first round of the World Snooker Championship he lost 1:10 to the Chinese Zhou Yuelong. It should be his last game as a professional until further notice, because the 84th place on the snooker world rankings was not enough for a qualification for the next season.

successes

Final participation

output	year	competition	Final opponent	Result
Amateur tournaments
winner	1988	EBSA U-19 European Snooker Championship	Sean O'Neill	7: 3
winner	1999	Amateur World Championship	David Lilley	11: 8

swell

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Profile of Ian Preece at CueTracker (as of June 1, 2018)
2. ↑ 1998 European Under 19 Championship - Rabat, Malta. globalsnookercentre.co.uk, archived from the original on December 4, 2004 ; accessed on July 30, 2015 . 
3. ↑ IBSF World Snooker Championship 1999 at CueTracker
4. ^ Preece battles back after almost quitting snooker , David Williams, South Wales Argus, May 25, 2016
5. ↑ Ron Florax: Ian Preece - Season 2016-2017 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, 2017, archived from the original on August 22, 2018 ; accessed on August 22, 2018 (English).  
6. ↑ World Rankings. WPBSA , May 2, 2017, archived from the original on August 22, 2018 ; accessed on August 22, 2018 (English).  
7. ↑ Ron Florax: Ian Preece - Season 2017-2018 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, 2018, archived from the original on August 22, 2018 ; accessed on August 22, 2018 (English).  
8. ↑ World Rankings. WPBSA , May 7, 2018, archived from the original on August 22, 2018 ; accessed on August 22, 2018 (English).  

Web links

Commons : Ian Preece  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Ian Preece at World Snooker
• Ian Preece on the Pro Snooker Blog (English)
• Profile of Ian Preece at CueTracker