Peter Francisco (born 14 February 1962 in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

) is a former

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

n professional

snooker player Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets, one at each corner and one in the middle of each long side. First played by British Army officers stationed in I ...

who won the African Snooker Championship 4 times and

South African Snooker Championship The South African Snooker Championship is the South African amateur snooker tournament that has been held since 1937 under the S.A. Billiard Control Council. From 1950 to 1993 it was held under the S.A. Billiards And Snooker Association. Jimmy van ...

8 times and the South African Billiards Championship 13 times as an amateur and professional.

Career

Francisco turned professional in 1984, and reached the final stages of the

World Snooker Championship The World Snooker Championship is the longest-running and most prestigious tournament in professional snooker. It is also the wealthiest, with total prize money in 2022 of £2,395,000, including £500,000 for the winner. First held in 1927 Wor ...

on five occasions: 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992 and 1995. He reached the semifinals in two ranking events: the 1986 International Open and the 1987 Grand Prix. In June 2013 he won the ABSF African Snooker Championship. Francisco participated in the 2015 Six-red World Championship, playing five matches in his group. He lost 1–5 to

Marco Fu Marco Fu Ka-chun, MH, JP (, born 8 January 1978) is a Hong Kong professional snooker player. He is a three-time snooker world rankings, ranking event winner, having won the 2007 Grand Prix (snooker), 2007 Grand Prix, the 2013 Australian ...

and Jamie Clarke, 3–5 to Mark Williams and 4–5 to eventual champion Thepchaiya and was eliminated after the group stage, but defeated Darren Paris 5–1 to record his first competitive victory since a 10–8 win over Mick Price in the 1995 World Championship.

Controversy

In 1995 Francisco lost 10–2 in the first round of the

against

Jimmy White James Warren White (born 2 May 1962) is an English professional snooker player who has won three seniors World titles. Nicknamed "The Whirlwind" because of his fluid, attacking style of play, White is the 1980 World Amateur Champion, 2009 ...

. There were an unusual number of bets made that the scoreline would be 10–2 in favour of White, which was the eventual outcome. Betting had been suspended on the match against the South African shortly before it began and a World Snooker Association panel analysed the match and later banned Francisco for five years for ''not conducting himself in a manner consistent with his status as a professional sportsman''. At the same hearing he was not found guilty of match rigging. After the 5 years of his ban was up he did briefly resume his pro career in 2000 but failed to make any impact.

Personal life

He is the nephew of fellow snooker players Manuel and

Silvino Francisco Silvino Francisco (born 3 May 1946) is a South African former professional snooker player, most notable for winning the 1985 British Open. Snooker career Francisco comes from a snooker-playing family. His brother Manuel and nephew Peter both ...

Performance and rankings timeline

Career finals

Amateur finals: 10 (10 titles)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Francisco, Peter 1962 births South African snooker players South African people of Hispanic descent Living people Sportspeople from Cape Town Competitors at the 2013 World Games