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Dave Harold

Harold at the2012 Paul Hunter Classic
Born	(1966-12-09)9 December 1966 (age 58) Stoke-on-Trent, England
Sport country	England
Nickname	The Stoke Potter[1]
Professional	1991–2015
Highestranking	11 (1996/1997)
Century breaks	143
Tournament wins
Ranking	1

David William Harold (born 9 December 1966^[2]) is an English former professionalsnooker player fromStoke-on-Trent. He was known by the nicknames of "the Hard Man" and "the Stoke Potter" (conflating his home city'spottery industry and his profession of potting snooker balls). As an amateur he played as David Harold, but after turning professional in 1991 he was registered as Dave Harold.^[3]

He won one ranking title, reached two further finals and several semi-finals, and spent four seasons ranked among the top 16. He compiled 143 century breaks.^[4]Steve Davis has commented that he is not the most naturally gifted player, but makes up for this with strong tactical play.^[2] For his technique and grinding play he has been compared toCliff Thorburn.

Soon after turning professional, Harold won the1993 Asian Open, beatingDarren Morgan 9–3 in the final.^[5] Ranked 93rd in the world at the time, he became the lowest-ranked player ever to win a ranking tournament.^{[citation needed]} He never repeated this achievement, although he reached his second ranking final in the 1994Grand Prix, losing 6–9 toJohn Higgins.

After 1994, Harold did not reach a third ranking final until 2008, although he reached a total of ten semi-finals in ranking tournaments, and was a Top-16 player for four seasons between1995/1996 and2001/2002, reaching a career-best position of No. 11 in theworld rankings in the 1996/97 season. In the 1996 Welsh Open, he lost in the semi-finals, 1–6, to eventual winnerMark Williams.

He competed in his first and onlyWorld Championship quarter-final inthe 1996 event, where he lost 7–13 toNigel Bond. He also lost 5–6 to Bond in his 1996 British Open semi-final less than two weeks earlier.

In the 1998Grand Prix, he knocked outStephen Hendry andJohn Higgins en route to the semi-finals, but lost narrowly to eventual championStephen Lee. 1998 also saw him reach his first semi-final in the UK Championship, where he was defeated 9–7 byMatthew Stevens.

In the 1999Grand Prix Harold led Mark Williams 5–3 in the semi-finals but lost 5–6. This was Harold's last ranking semi-final until 2008, although he also reached the semis in the non-ranking 2001Masters, defeatingJohn Higgins andJohn Parrott, but losing his semi-final 5–6 to eventual runner-upFergal O'Brien after having trailed 5–1.

Following a poor season in 2001–2002, Harold dropped out of the Top 16, down to number 29 in the World Rankings. A broken wrist sustained on New Year's Eve 2003 saw him drop further down the rankings,^{[citation needed]} out of the top 32, although he had a better2005/2006 season. Another consistent season in2006/2007 helped Harold back up to No. 30 in theworld rankings for 2007/2008.

2007/2008 started with a quarter-final appearance in theShanghai Masters, losing to eventual winnerDominic Dale. Harold did not get past the round robin phase of theGrand Prix, finishing fifth in his group of six players; but in the 2007UK Championship, Harold eliminated World Number 2Graeme Dott 9–7 in the first round to achieve a place in the last 16 of the tournament for the first time since 1999. However, he lost 2–9 in the second round toMark Selby. He qualified for the final stages of the World Championship with a 10–4 win overMike Dunn, but lost 10–3 at the Crucible in the first round proper toShaun Murphy.

Harold retained his Top 32 ranking, and started the2008–09 season ranked at#28, his highest ranking since 2003. In the first ranking event of the new season, the2008 Northern Ireland Trophy, he beatRicky Walden 5–2,Graeme Dott 5–3,Stephen Lee 5–4 and defending championStephen Maguire to reach the semi-finals, his first appearance at that stage of a ranking event for five years. He then moved into a 5–1 lead againstJohn Higgins and won 6–4, to reach his first final since 1994, which he lost 9–3 toRonnie O'Sullivan.^[6] Harold's performance in this tournament moved him up to 14th in the provisional world rankings. Harold remarked after the final that, aside from claiming the World Championship, his one other remaining ambition in the game is to score a victory over O'Sullivan, who he has never beaten in a ranking tournament. The2008 Northern Ireland Trophy marked his tenth consecutive failure to do so.^[7]

Harold subsequently qualified for the2008 Shanghai Masters andGrand Prix. In the former, he defeated home favouriteDing Junhui in the last 32, before losing 4–5 (from 3–0 and 4–1 up) againstSteve Davis; however, in the latter he was eliminated in the first round byAli Carter. A less successful run of results in the second half of the season saw him fall out of the Top 16 in the provisional rankings, largely due to his failure to qualify for the 2009 World Championship, although he started the 2009/2010 season ranked at No. 19, an improvement of nine places on the previous season.

Harold appeared in the Welsh Open in January 2010 but lost in the first round 5–1 to Stephen Hendry. In September he beat Shaun Murphy 3–0 in the newly formed World Open in Glasgow but subsequently lost in the next round to Jamie Cope 3–2.

The2012–13 season saw Harold win 2 qualifying matches to reach the main stages of the2012 Wuxi Classic, however, he lost his wildcard match to Chinese playerRouzi Maimaiti. Harold subsequently failed to qualify for the next four ranking events, losing to players such asAli Carter,Barry Hawkins, andCao Yupeng. He did, however, qualify for theGerman Masters, beatingCraig Steadman 5–3 andRyan Day 5–4 to qualify for the Last 32 of the event, where he lost 3–5 to former world championGraeme Dott. He only won 1 more match in ranking event qualifiers for the rest of the season, culminating with a 9–10 defeat theAlfie Burden in qualifying for theWorld Championship. Harold played in many of thePlayers Tour Championship event throughout the season, his best results being three Last 16 appearances, and a further two Last 32 results, finishing 39th on the Order of Merit, outside of the Top 26 that qualified for theFinals.

Harold started the2013–14 season ranked 50th in theworld rankings. He retired in May 2015 after suffering from eyesight problems.^[8]

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score
Winner	1.	1993	Asian Open	Darren Morgan	9–3
Runner-up	1.	1994	Grand Prix	John Higgins	6–9
Runner-up	2.	2008	Northern Ireland Trophy	Ronnie O'Sullivan	3–9

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score
Winner	1.	1993	Merseyside Professional Championship	Tony Rampello	5–3[10]
Runner-up	1.	1998	Benson & Hedges Championship	David Gray	6–9

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score
Runner-up	1.	2005	Pontins Autumn Open	Joe Swail	3–5
Runner-up	2.	2006	Pontins Pro-Am - Event 5	Ben Woollaston	1–4[11]
Winner	1.	2006	Pontins Pro-Am - Event 6	Ryan Day	4−1[12]
Runner-up	3.	2006	Swiss Open	Matthew Couch	3–4[13]
Winner	2.	2007	Pontins Pro-Am - Event 6	Judd Trump	4–3[14]
Winner	3.	2007	Swiss Open	Ken Doherty	5–0[15]

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• Dave Harold at theWorld Snooker Tour (archived)
• Profile at Global Snooker at theWayback Machine (archived 15 November 2010)

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