Sam Craigie (born 29 December 1993) is an English professional

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...

player from

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

. He enjoyed a successful junior career before turning professional in 2011.

Career

Early career

Craigie qualified for the 2011/2012 Main Tour after winning the 2010 IBSF World Under 21 Championships. He defeated his brother

Stephen Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; ...

7–6 in the semi-finals before beating

Li Hang Li Hang is the name of: * Li Hang (footballer) (李行, born 1989), Chinese association footballer *Li Hang (snooker player) (李行, born 1990), Chinese snooker player See also * Li Gang (Song dynasty) (李綱, 1083–1140), regional commander se ...

9–8 in the final to secure the title.

2011/2012 season

In his debut season on the snooker tour he was unranked and therefore needed to win four qualifying matches to make the main draws of the ranking events. He won two matches in attempts to reach both the

Australian Goldfields Open The Australian Goldfields Open was a professional ranking snooker tournament. The final champion was John Higgins in 2015. History Australia had previously hosted the 1971 and 1975 World Snooker Championships, as well as several other high-pr ...

and

German Masters The German Masters is a professional ranking snooker tournament held at the Tempodrom in Berlin, Germany since 2011. The 2021 event was held at Milton Keynes in England because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Zhao Xintong is the reigning champion, h ...

respectively and had his best set of results in qualifying for the China Open, where he beat

Adam Wicheard Adam Wicheard (born 23 August 1985) is an English professional snooker player, who has competed professionally between 2010 and 2012. Career He was selected to compete in the World Under-21s in 2005 and was progressing towards turning profes ...

Liu Song Song, known as Liu Song (), Former Song (前宋) or Song of (the) Southern Dynasty (南朝宋) in historiography, was an imperial dynasty of China and the first of the four Southern dynasties during the Northern and Southern dynasties period. ...

and

Gerard Greene Gerard Eamonn Greene (born 12 November 1973 in Chatham, Kent) is a Northern Irish professional snooker player. He represents Northern Ireland in international events, as his parents are from Belfast. Greene has enjoyed moderate success in his ...

, before losing to

Ricky Walden Ricky Walden (born 11 November 1982) is an English professional snooker player from Chester. Walden turned professional in 2000 and it took him eight years to win his first ranking title at the Shanghai Masters. He has since won the 2012 Wuxi ...

3–5 in the final round. Craigie played in 11 of the 12 minor-ranking

Players Tour Championship The Players Tour Championship was a series of snooker tournaments comprising some minor-ranking events played in Europe, and an Asian leg comprising some minor-ranking events in Asia. The series concluded with a Grand Final, where qualification ...

events throughout the season, with his best finish coming in Event 11 where he was defeated by Walden again, this time in the last 16 by 4 frames to 2. Craigie finished his first season ranked outside of the top 64 who automatically retained their places for the 2012/2013 season and therefore dropped off the main tour.

Following years

Craigie played in two events in the 2012/2013 season, but could only pick up one frame. He did not enter an event in the following season, but did play in 2015 Q School, coming closest to rejoining the tour in the first event when he was defeated 4–2 by

Adam Duffy Adam Duffy (born 30 March 1989) is an English professional snooker player. Duffy qualified for the 2011–12 professional Main Tour as one of four semi-finalists from the third and final Q School event. Career Debut season As a new player on ...

in the last 32.

2016/2017 season

In 2016, Craigie received a two-year

tour Tour or Tours may refer to: Travel * Tourism, travel for pleasure * Tour of duty, a period of time spent in military service * Campus tour, a journey through a college or university's campus * Guided tour, a journey through a location, directed ...

card for the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 seasons after successfully qualifying through the EBSA Play-Offs in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

, beating

4–3 in the last round of the event. He qualified for the World Open with a 5–3 victory over 1997 world champion

Ken Doherty Ken Doherty (born 17 September 1969) is an Irish professional snooker player, commentator and radio presenter. As an amateur, Doherty won the Irish Amateur Championship twice, the World Under-21 Amateur Championship and the World Amateur C ...

and won his first match in a main draw of a ranking event by beating

Marco Fu Marco Fu Ka-chun, MH, JP (, born 8 January 1978) is a Hong Kong professional snooker player. He is a three-time ranking event winner, having won the 2007 Grand Prix, the 2013 Australian Goldfields Open and the 2016 Scottish Open. He ...

5–3 in the opening round. Craigie was then edged out 5–4 by

Matthew Selt Matthew Selt (born 7 March 1985) is an English professional snooker player originally from Romford, east London and now living in Chelmsford, Essex. He qualified for the professional tour by finishing seventh on the Pontin's International Open ...

. Craigie made a century and two fifty plus breaks to whitewash Jamie Jones 4–0 at the Northern Ireland Open, before

John Higgins John Higgins, (born 18 May 1975) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He has won 31 career ranking titles, placing him in third position on the all-time list of ranking event winners, behind Ronnie O'Sullivan (39) and Stephen Hendry ( ...

made a 147, 137 and 130 in a second round 4–1 defeat. Craigie was 3–1 ahead of Mark King at the interval of their first round match at the

UK Championship The UK Championship is a professional ranking snooker tournament. It is one of snooker's prestigious Triple Crown events, along with the World Championship and the Masters. It is usually held at the Barbican Centre, York. Ronnie O'Sullivan h ...

and that quickly became 4–1 when King was docked a frame for forgetting his cue at the resumption of play. Craigie went on to win 6–2, but in the second round lost 6–5 to

Luca Brecel Luca Brecel (born 8 March 1995) is a Belgian professional snooker player. He won the European Under-19 title at the age of 14 and went on to break Stephen Hendry's record as the youngest player ever to compete at the Crucible Theatre. He made hi ...

after leading 5–3.

Shaun Murphy Shaun Peter Murphy (born 10 August 1982) is an English professional snooker player who won the 2005 World Snooker Championship, 2005 World Championship. Nicknamed "The Magician", Murphy is noted for his straight Cue stick, cue action and his lo ...

knocked Craigie out of the Shoot-Out and in the second round of the Gibraltar Open. He dropped off the tour at the end of the 2017/18 season but entered Q School in an attempt to win back a place. He defeated former crucible semi-finalist

Andy Hicks Andrew Hicks (born 10 August 1973) is an English professional snooker player. Nicknamed "The Cream of Devon", Hicks was a semi-finalist at both the World Snooker Championship and UK Championship in 1995, and the same stage at four other ranking ...

in round 3 of the first event. He defeated

Dechawat Poomjaeng Dechawat Poomjaeng ( ''Dechāwạt Phùmcæ̂ng'', born July 11, 1978) is a Thai professional snooker player. Career Early career He won the 2010 IBSF World Snooker Championship in Damascus, Syria, defeating India's Pankaj Advani 10–7 in the ...

in the final round to secure his return to the tour at the first event.

2018/2019 season

Craigie regained his two-year tour card after qualifying through Q School. In April 2019, he reached the quarter final of a ranking event for the first time at the China Open after beating the likes of Ryan Day,

Ali Carter Allister Carter (born 25 July 1979) is an English professional snooker player. He has twice been the World Championship runner-up, in 2008 and 2012, losing both finals to Ronnie O'Sullivan. He has won four ranking titles and briefly reached numb ...

and

Liang Wenbo Liang Wenbo (; born 25 March 1987) is a Chinese professional snooker player based at the Oracle Snooker Club, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England. Liang, who plays left-handed, has reached one Triple Crown final, made three Masters appearances, and ...

before being whitewashed by

Neil Robertson Neil Robertson (born 11 February 1982) is an Australian professional snooker player who is a former world champion and former world number one. The only Australian to have won a ranking event, he is also the only player from outside the United ...

2019/2020 season

Craigie's best result for the season was reaching the Last 32 of the Riga Masters after beating Long Zehuang and Jamie O'Neil before losing 4–3 to

2020/2021 season

Craigie qualified for 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 ...

for the first time after beating

Ashley Hugill Ashley Hugill (born 28 September 1994 in York, Yorkshire) is an English professional snooker player. Career In May 2017, Hugill came through Q-School by winning six matches to earn a two-year card on the World Snooker Tour for the 2017–18 an ...

Hossein Vafaei Hossein Vafaei ( fa, حسین وفایی ایوری; born 15 October 1994) is an Iranian professional snooker player. He is the first professional player from Iran. He won his first professional title at the 2022 Snooker Shoot Out, beating Mar ...

, and

Zhao Xintong Zhao Xintong (; born 3 April 1997) is a Chinese professional snooker player. Long considered one of the brightest talents in the game, he won his first ranking title (also his first Triple Crown title) at the 2021 UK Championship, defeating Luc ...

in the qualifying rounds. He drew Mark Williams in the first round.

Personal life

Craigie's elder brother

was also a professional snooker player.

Performance and rankings timeline

Career finals

Amateur finals: 1 (1 title)

References

External links

Sam Craigie
at ''worldsnooker.com'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Craigie, Sam English snooker players Living people 1993 births Sportspeople from Newcastle upon Tyne