Mark Johnston-Allen

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Mark Johnston-Allen
birthday 28th December 1968 (age 51)
nationality EnglandEngland England
professional 1988-1997, 1998/99
Prize money £ 186,799
Highest break 140
Century Breaks 17th
Main tour successes
World championships -
Ranking tournament victories -
Minor tournament victories -
World rankings
Highest WRL place 31 ( 1992 - 1994 )

Mark Johnston-Allen (born December 28, 1968 ) is an English snooker player from Bristol . From 1988 to 2001 he played a total of 10 years as a player on the professional tour .

Career

Entry into professional snooker

Mark Johnston-Allen learned snooker from his father, who regularly went to play with a friend. At the age of 15, Mark Johnston-Allen first tried to come on the professional tour , but his participation in the WPBSA Pro Ticket Series was largely unsuccessful. At the Pontins Autumn Open in Wales, a tournament with professional participation, he reached the final the following year. In 1986 he came in the WPBSA series once in the quarter-finals and once in the semi-finals and in 1987 he was finally in the final of the 4th tournament, which he lost 4-5 to Nick Terry .

At the age of 19 he qualified for the professional season 1988/89 and already at the International Open he defeated Dave Gilbert and reached the round of 64. He repeated that at the Grand Prix . At the European Open he defeated a top 32 player with Steve James and lost in the round of the last 32 just 4: 5 against Jim Wych . And at the British Open , he beat world number five Terry Griffiths and reached his first round of 16. Otherwise he came in at least round 2 of all tournaments and was already 52nd in the world rankings after one year. The second year he started with a defeat and was unable to confirm the results in the debut year. The round of 32 at the International Open with a 5-1 win over Alex Higgins was the only high point. In the World Cup he made it to round 3, but then missed the main tournament at the Crucible Theater with 7:10 against Peter Francisco . In the 1990/91 season the moderate results continued. The big exception was the European Open : In rows he beat top players like John Virgo and Cliff Thorburn and in the round of 16 he defeated world number one Stephen Hendry 5-0. In the final against Tony Jones he turned a 4-5 deficit into a 7-5 lead, but then missed the surprise victory, losing the following frames and the match 7-9. In the season balance, he stagnated at 52nd place.

Two tournament finals and a battle for the top 32 position

In his fourth professional year there were again many early defeats, but at least he reached the round of 16 at the British Open . In the following European he met Hendry again in this round and defeated him again, this time with 5: 2. In the semifinals he left another top player behind, John Parrott , 6-2. The world number three Jimmy White then stood in the way of winning the tournament on his second attempt, Johnston-Allen lost 3: 9. At the end of the season only the world championship remained and there he defeated the Welshman Steve Newbury 10-2 in round 3 and moved into the main tournament for the first time. In the Crucible he lost 4:10 in the opening match against Tony Knowles . It was his only appearance in a World Cup finals. With his performance in the last few tournaments, he made a leap into the top 32 in the world. The 1992/93 season began with a round of 16 at the Grand Prix and otherwise a rather mixed course. In the Strachan Challenge , a series of minor tournaments with reduced number of points for the ranking list, he made it to the second round at one tournament. In his most successful tournament, the European Open , he reached the quarter-finals for the third time in a row, but was eliminated by Mick Price . He missed the Crucible entry at the World Cup in the decisive game against Ronnie O'Sullivan . But he was still able to defend 31st place in the world rankings.

What followed was a completely disappointing season. In 9 ranked tournaments he was only able to win a single game and for the third time he failed in the last round before making it to the World Cup finals. At the beginning of the 1994/95 season , the opening defeats continued before it slowly got better. At the International Open he finally beat Stephen Hendry again, who could not beat him in his entire professional career. With 5: 1 against Mark Williams and 5: 2 against O'Sullivan he made it to the quarterfinals, where Jimmy White made sure things were clear with 5: 0. At the following Thailand Open , Johnston-Allen was able to retaliate 5-4 in the round of 32. With wins over David Roe and Darren Morgan , he reached the semifinals, where he was defeated by local hero James Wattana . The following year, at the beginning of the season at the Thailand Classic, he again beat Ronnie O'Sullivan, who had now risen to number 3 in the world rankings, and reached the round of 16. Many early defeats were followed by another round of 16 at the British Open , where he defeated, among other things, world number two Steve Davis . But again he missed the return to the top 32 and instead stagnated at 44th place.

Relegation and post-career

A decisive year followed, because in 1997 a limit on the number of participants for the professional tournaments was to be introduced and only the top 64 automatically qualified for the new Main Tour . Ironically, in the 1996/97 season , the Englishman had another drop in performance. There were 10 professional tournaments and he only reached the 2nd round twice. He fell to position 70 and did not make it through the WPBSA Qualifying School to qualify for the Main Tour. Once he reached the playoff there, but lost it 0: 5 against Quinten Hann . So he had to compete in the second-rate UK tour in 1997/98 . A round of 16 at one of the UK Tour tournaments was his only gain. After all, his placement was sufficient to be able to participate in the major tournaments again from 1998 onwards, with the qualification rules changed again. At the Grand Prix he achieved a respectable success by entering the main tournament, but otherwise he was always eliminated in the qualifying rounds. With that he also fell out of the top 128 and finally lost his main tour status. In 2000 he played again at the World Cup in the amateur qualification, then he ended his snooker career at the age of 31.

Later, Mark Johnston-Allen was also a snooker commentator for Sky and appeared at tournaments as a presenter (" Master of Ceremonies ").

successes

Ranking tournaments:

Qualifying tournaments:

  • Group win: WPBSA Qualifying School (1997, Event 3)
  • Final: WPBSA Pro Ticket Series (1987, Event 4)
  • Semi-Finals: WPBSA Pro Ticket Series (1986, Event 1)

swell

  1. ↑ a b c Profile of Mark Johnston-Allen at CueTracker (as of July 31, 2018)
  2. ↑ Snooker's Unlikeliest Champions - Tony Jones , Michael Day, The Cue View, November 26, 2017
  3. ^ Johnston-Allen to Return for "Unfinished Business," World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, July 29, 2018

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Johnston-Allen, Mark
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English snooker player
DATE OF BIRTH December 28, 1968