Paddy Browne

Paddy Browne
birthday	1st April 1965 (age 55)
nationality	Ireland
professional	1983 - 1997
Prize money	£ 70,550
Highest break	108 ( European Open 1990 , Q)
Century Breaks	7th
World rankings
Highest WRL place	43 ( 1987/88 )
Best results
Ranked tournaments	1 × quarter-finals
Other professional tournaments	1 × winner
Amateur tournaments	Irish Champion 1982 All-Irish Champion 1982

Paddy Browne (born April 1, 1965 ) is a retired Irish snooker player who was a professional player for fourteen years between 1983 and 1997 after winning the Irish Snooker Championship in 1982. During this time he reached 43rd place in the world rankings and won a professional tournament in 1988 with the second event in the WPBSA Non-Ranking tournament series.

Career

Browne is from Dublin and used to work as an errand boy for a printing company. At the age of 13 he started playing snooker in a snooker club next to his work. Shortly thereafter, given his talent, he was offered free training and free entry to various junior tournaments, which greatly benefited Browne's skills. As early as 1979 he played in the first class of the Dublin league system in a team with Eugene Hughes . In the same year he won the Irish U16 championship and was shortly afterwards invited to the BBC format Junior Pot Black . In 1980 he won the Irish U19 Championship, took part in the Home International Championship and, on the recommendation of his mentor Finbarr Ruane, got a manager with Brendan O'Carroll . In 1982 he reached the semi-finals of the British U19 Championship, where he lost to John Parrott before winning the Irish Snooker Championship against Dick Brennan and later defeating Northern Irish Champion Sammy Pavis at the All-Ireland Amateur Championship . In the same year he took part in the amateur world championship and survived the group stage with only one loss to Gary Kwok , but then lost in the quarterfinals directly to Joe Grech . In 1983 he reached the quarter-finals of the British U19 Championship again before becoming a professional player a little later. For this he moved to the area around Manchester and made friends there with Tony Kearney, who was also from Ireland .

First professional years and years of success

Browne's first professional season, the 1983/84 season , was marked by defeats; until shortly before the end of the season he won only two games against David Greaves and thus moved into the round of the last 64 of the Classics . At the end of the season, however, Browne was able to decide two games in the World Snooker Championship before losing to Eddie Sinclair in the final qualifying round . Nevertheless, he did not manage to place himself on the snooker world rankings. He only succeeded when the next season was much more successful for him and he reached the round of 32 of the Classics , among other things . As a result, he was ranked 61st.

Despite some initial defeats, Browne was able to maintain this form in the 1985/86 season when he reached the round of 32 at both the Classic and the British Open . After he had reached the second round of the Grand Prix in the following season in addition to the semi-finals at the non-ranking Irish Professional Championship and the round of the last 64 of the UK Championship , Browne improved to 43rd place in the world rankings, which he could never beat . But in the following season he didn't win too many games; he reached in addition to the semi-finals of the Irish Professional Championship only the round of the last 32 of the British Open . This led to a deterioration in the world rankings to 54th place.

The 1988/89 season was completely different : especially in the second half of the season, Browne mostly reached the main round of a tournament; even at the snooker world championship he reached the main round with wins over Steve Meakin and Murdo MacLeod and a white wash over Steve Longworth , but lost immediately to Willie Thorne . His best result in a ranking tournament, however, was the quarter-finals in the Classic ; a round in which the WPBSA Non-Ranking was eliminated from the third event of the tournament series . While he was eliminated again in the semi-finals at the Irish Professional Championship , he reached the final at the second event of the same tournament series and won 5-1 against Peter Francisco, the only title of his professional career. In the world rankings he was ranked 44th as a result of the season.

Slow WRL descent and final years of professionalism

In the 1989/90 season , however, Browne's form deteriorated again. Although he reached several main rounds, he never got past a round of the last 32. In the world rankings he fell back to 53rd place. In the following season he did not even get past the round of the last 64 in ranked tournaments, but in tournaments without world ranking influence things went a little better. In the International One Frame Shoot-out, he was only eliminated in the round of 32 and in the Benson and Hedges Satellite Championship only in the round of 16. Due to his performance in the ranking tournaments, however, he deteriorated in the world rankings to 83rd place.

The following seasons went even worse; he often only won a game or two before he was eliminated in qualifying. He reached the round of the last 64 of the UK Championship , the round of 32 of the Benson and Hedges Satellite Championship and the quarter-finals of the Irish Professional Championship in the 1991/92 season , was next season in addition to the round of 16 participation in the Irish Professional Championship participating in the round of 96 of the European Open his best result. He never got past the last 128 for the next two seasons. He then did not play any more professional games because he had severe pain in his legs, but could not treat them with medication due to the drug policy of the world association, and ended his professional career at the end of the 1996/97 snooker season - crashed to 396th place.

The pain in his leg was caused by an osteoporosis that required an operation and hip implants. He was later operated on on the shoulder. At the end of the 1980s he met his future wife and had three children with her. Browne , who lives in Salford, later became a grandfather and worked as the manager of a local snooker club.

Style of play

Browne had in the eyes of Fin Ruane, the son of his former coach Finbarr Ruane, "the talent, the looks and the personality" to become a successful snooker player. At first, however, Browne suffered from homesickness, but then trained very intensively in the late 1980s until he made friends with Alex Higgins and often went to the pub with him instead of at the training table . As a result, and as a result of his pain, his shape deteriorated noticeably.

successes

output	year	competition	Final opponent	Result
Amateur tournaments
winner	1982	Irish Snooker Championship	Dick Brennan	8: 4
winner	1982	All-Ireland Amateur Championship	Sammy Pavis	5: 1
Professional tournaments
winner	1988/2	WPBSA non-ranking	Peter Francisco	5: 1

Web links

• Profile of Paddy Browne on CueTracker
• Paddy Browne in the snooker Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Ron Florax: Career Total Statistics For Paddy Browne - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed on July 6, 2020 .  
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Ron Florax: Ranking History For Paddy Browne. CueTracker.net, accessed on July 6, 2020 .  
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Fin Ruane: FF: Where Are They Now ... Paddy Browne. SnookerHQ, November 25, 2012, accessed July 6, 2020 .  
4. ↑ Ron Florax: Paddy Browne - Season 1981-1982 - Non-professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed on July 6, 2020 .  
5. ↑ Ron Florax: Paddy Browne - Season 1982-1983 - Non-professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed on July 6, 2020 .  
6. ↑ Ron Florax: Paddy Browne - Season 1983-1984 - Non-professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed on July 6, 2020 .  
7. ↑ Ron Florax: Paddy Browne - Season 1983-1984 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed on July 6, 2020 .  
8. ↑ Ron Florax: Paddy Browne - Season 1984-1985 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed on July 6, 2020 .  
9. ↑ Ron Florax: Paddy Browne - Season 1985-1986 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed on July 6, 2020 .  
10. ↑ Ron Florax: Paddy Browne - Season 1986-1987 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed on July 6, 2020 .  
11. ↑ Ron Florax: Paddy Browne - Season 1987-1988 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed on July 6, 2020 .  
12. ↑ Ron Florax: Paddy Browne - Season 1988-1989 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed on July 6, 2020 .  
13. ↑ Ron Florax: Paddy Browne - Season 1989-1990 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed on July 6, 2020 .  
14. ↑ Ron Florax: Paddy Browne - Season 1990-1991 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed on July 6, 2020 .  
15. ↑ Ron Florax: Paddy Browne - Season 1991-1992 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed on July 6, 2020 .  
16. ↑ Ron Florax: Paddy Browne - Season 1992-1993 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed on July 6, 2020 .  
17. ↑ Ron Florax: Paddy Browne - Season 1993-1994 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed on July 6, 2020 .  
18. ↑ Ron Florax: Paddy Browne - Season 1994-1995 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed on July 6, 2020 .