Peter Francisco

Peter Francisco
birthday	13th February 1962 (age 58)
place of birth	Cape Town , South Africa
nationality	/
professional	1984 - 1995
Prize money	263,022 ₤
Highest break	137
Century Breaks	21st
World rankings
Highest WRL place	14th

Peter Francisco (born February 13, 1962 in Cape Town ) is a South African snooker and English billiards player. Between 1984 and 1995 he was a professional snooker player for eleven seasons.

Career

His father Manuel and his brother Silvino were also snooker players. Manuel was several times South African champion, Silvino also became a professional player and even won a ranking tournament. In 1981 Francisco became the South African champion for the first time and defended this title until 1983. In 1983 he also won the English Billiards counterpart .

Professional career

For the 1984/85 season he finally became a professional player. Directly in the second tournament, the 1984 Grand Prix , he moved into the round of 32 after victories over Ian Black and John Spencer , where he lost just 4: 5 to Dean Reynolds . At the snooker world championship he just missed the main round of the tournament, he had to admit defeat to Murdo MacLeod in the decisive round .

In the following season he moved into the round of 16 of three world ranking tournaments three times , each time he was defeated by a world champion. At the World Cup , he just missed the main round for the second time, this time losing to Neal Foulds 9:10 . He was also successful in the 1986/87 season: at the 1986 International Open he made it to the semi-finals - with Alex Higgins defeating an ex-world champion and Silvino, his uncle - but losing 7: 9 against Cliff Thorburn . At the Classic 1987 he was defeated by his uncle in the round of 16. In his fourth professional season he made it to the semi-finals of the 1987 Grand Prix , but lost to Dennis Taylor 4: 9. He also lost to Taylor at the 1988 Classic , but this time in the round of 16. At the end of the season, Francisco moved to the main round of the World Cup at the Crucible Theater for the first time , where he was eliminated immediately by Willie Thorne .

The 1988/89 season started much more cautiously. It wasn't until the second non-ranking event that he defeated several good opponents such as Alain Robidoux and Alex Higgins and made it to the finals, where he had to admit defeat to Paddy Browne . Due to his world number 14 position , he was able to take part in the Masters , but he lost his opening game against Neal Foulds. At the British Open he made it to the quarter-finals, but he couldn't win against Tony Meo . At the end of the season, he moved for the second time in a row in the main round of the World Cup , where he lost 7:10 to Dean Reynolds in the first round. At the beginning of the next season he moved into the round of 16 of the Asian Open , where he was eliminated 4-5 by Gary Wilkinson . At the Dubai Classic he was eliminated in the quarterfinals with 1: 5 against John Parrott , at the UK Championship he was defeated 3: 9 in the round of 16 against Mark Bennett . Two more defeats in the round of 16 followed at the Classic and the British Open . At the end of the season he reached the main round of the World Cup again , but he lost his first round game against Dean Reynolds.

As a result, he slipped on the world rankings from 26th, which was reinforced by his performance in the 1990/91 season . Only once did he reach the quarter-finals of a ranking tournament, at the 1990 Grand Prix he lost to Stephen Hendry 5-0. At the UK Championship and the British Open he reached the round of 32 and at the World Masters the quarter-finals, but the latter had no impact on the world rankings. At the European Open he moved into the round of 16, where he lost 2: 5 to Brady Gollan . Finally, he missed the main round of the World Cup by a 9-10 defeat by Robert Marshall .

In the 1991/92 season Francisco reached the round of 32 four times, two more times he made it to the round of 16: At the Dubai Classic he lost 4-5 to Joe Johnson and at the Welsh Open 2-5 against Gary Wilkinson . He also reached the main round of the World Cup with a 10: 7 win over Ken Doherty , but he lost his opening game against Martin Clark . At the end of the season he was able to improve to 19th place in the world rankings.

A setback, however, was the 1992/93 season , where he only came over the round of 64 in two of three events of the Strachan Challenge ; both times he lost in the round of 16, first Anthony Hamilton and then Troy Shaw . He also missed the main round of the World Cup , which is why he slipped to 25th place in the world rankings. The 1993/94 season was also unsuccessful, as he only twice reached the round of 48 and the qualifying tournament for the Masters, the round of 32, where he lost to Ronnie O'Sullivan . He slipped out of the top 32 on the world rankings.

Lock

The 1994/95 season went a little better. Francisco reached the round of 32 of the Welsh Open and the round of 16 of the British Open . He was also able to qualify for the world championship by winning over Joe Jogia , Anthony Hamilton and Mick Price . He lost 2:10 to Jimmy White and caused a scandal in gentlemen's sport . As high amounts were placed on the 2:10 result and some bets on the 1:10 and 3:10 results from Francisco's point of view shortly before the game, suspicion of betting fraud arose. A month later, Francisco had to answer to a committee of the WPBSA in a hotel in Manchester . The hearing lasted nine hours and included an analysis of the game by three experienced professional players. They not only looked at the difficulty of the missed balls, but also the logic of the chosen shooting options and the context of the mistakes made and came to the conclusion that Francisco had purposely played poorly. The hearing ended with the decision to ban Francisco for five years for unsportsmanlike conduct. This was the longest suspension to date, five times longer than Alex Higgins' .

Further career progression

Between 1998 and 2000, Francisco was South African champion three more times , another title followed in 2007. At least in 1998, 1999 and 2000 he was again English billiards champion. In 2012 and 2013 he was continental champion in snooker , he defeated Mohamed Khairy and Khalid Belaied Abumdas 6-2 each. Since a Main Tour starting place for the title has been advertised since 2012, Francisco could theoretically have become a professional player again, but he waived. Also in 2013 he took part in the World Games , where he lost 3-2 to Nigel Bond in the first round of the "Men's Snooker" discipline .

In 2015 he took part in the 6-Red World Championship and was eliminated with one win and four losses in the group stage. In 2016 he was able to become African champion for the third time, this time he defeated Wael Talaat 6-1. In the same year he became the South African champion for the seventh time.

successes

Final participation

output	year	competition	Final opponent	Result
Amateur tournaments
winner	1981-1983	South African Snooker Championship	unknown
Second	1988	WPBSA non-ranking	Paddy Browne	1: 5
winner	1998-2000	South African Snooker Championship	unknown
winner	2007	South African Snooker Championship
winner	2012	ABSF Snooker Africa Championship	Mohamed Khairy	6: 2
Second	2012	South African Snooker Championship	Kiashan Moodley	4: 7
winner	2013	ABSF Snooker Africa Championship	Khalid Belaied Abumdas	6: 2
winner	2016	ABSF Snooker Africa Championship	Wael Talaat	6: 1
winner	2016	South African Snooker Championship	Faaris Khan	7: 6

More Achievements:

• South African English Billiards Championship : 4 × winners (1983, 1998–2000)

Web links

• Profile of Peter Francisco on CueTracker
• Peter Francisco in the Snooker Database (English)
• Archived profile at GlobalSnooker

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Ron Florax: Career Total Statistics For Peter Francisco - Professional Results. (No longer available online.) CueTracker.net, archived from the original on September 3, 2018 ; accessed on September 3, 2018 (English).  
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Honor list. (No longer available online.) South African Billiards and Snooker Association, 2001, archived from the original on July 20, 2004 ; accessed on July 24, 2020 (English).  
3. ↑ Guy Hodgson: SNOOKER: Francisco banned for five years. (No longer available online.) The Independent , May 9, 1995, archived from the original on September 3, 2018 ; accessed on September 3, 2018 (English).  
4. ↑ Clive Everton : Is match-fixing on the verge of ruining snooker? (No longer available online.) The Guardian , December 16, 2008, archived from the original on September 4, 2018 ; accessed on September 4, 2018 .