Nigel Bond

Bond at the2016 Paul Hunter Classic
Born	(1965-11-15)15 November 1965 (age 60) Darley Dale, England
Sport country	England
Nickname	00-147[1]
Professional	1989–2022
Highestranking	5 (1996/1997)
Century breaks	128
Tournament wins
Ranking	1
Medal record Men'ssnooker Representing Great Britain World Games 2009 Kaohsiung Individual

Nigel Bond (born 15 November 1965) is an English former professionalsnooker player.

Bond competed on themain tour from 1989 to 2022, and was ranked within the world's top 16 players between 1992 and 1999, peaking at 5th for the1996–97 season. He reached the final of theWorld Championship in 1995, where he lost 9–18 toStephen Hendry. He won the1996 British Open, defeatingJohn Higgins 9–8.

Having reached three other ranking tournament finals, Bond won the2011 Snooker Shoot-Out and, in 2012, defeatedTony Chappel to win theWorld Seniors Championship. He fell off the tour following his loss toLukas Kleckers in the second qualifying round for the2022 World Championship, and subsequently announced his retirement.^[2]

After a strong amateur career,^[3] Bond turned professional for the1989–90 season. He reached his first ranking semi-final in his first season, and his first final in his second season, but his career peaked in the mid-1990s. In the first round of the1994 World Championship, he pulled off one of the biggest comebacks in the event's history, rallying from 2–9 to defeatCliff Thorburn 10–9 in what turned out to be Thorburn's last appearance at the Crucible. A year later, Bond reached the final after beatingStephen Lee,Alan McManus,Gary Wilkinson andAndy Hicks, but lost toStephen Hendry 9–18. As a consequence of reaching the final, he climbed to number five in the world rankings for the1996–97 season, and in that same season he acquired his only ranking tournament victory, theBritish Open, beatingJohn Higgins 9–8 after needing a snooker in the final frame.^[4] He won the World Snooker Association Performance of the Year award for this achievement, although he then failed to maintain this level of performance.

He reached at least the quarter-finals at theCrucible Theatre every year from 1993 to 1996, losing to Hendry every time, which added extra spice to their first-round match in2006. After leading comfortably throughout the early stages of the match, Bond was pegged back to 7–7 and the match went to a final frame. With only the black remaining, and seven points up, Bond clipped it into the left corner pocket, only for the cue ball to goin-off in the right middle pocket, resulting in a re-spotted black (the first one ever to decide the final frame of a World Championship match), which Bond potted to take frame and match. The final score was 10–9, Bond's first win at the Crucible since 1999,^[5] and his only last-16 run of that season.^[6]

By the end of the 1990s, he was out of the top 16, and dropped out of the top 32 for the2004–05 season. However, he reclaimed his place a year later, and remained there until 2010. In the2007 World Championship he lost in the first round, 7–10 toPeter Ebdon.

A run to the last 16 of the2007 UK Championship,^[7] in which he came from 5–7 to win 9–7 againstKen Doherty in the last 32 before losing 6–9 toDing Junhui in the last 16, was a precursor to Bond's first quarter-final run for five years, at theChina Open. Victories overDavid Roe, Stephen Lee andBarry Pinches took him to a meeting withStephen Maguire, who whitewashed him 5–0.

He opened the2008–09 season with first-round defeats in the first five tournaments, but victory over Ebdon in the first round of theWorld Championship ensured that he held his top-32 status. This was, however, his last appearance at the main stages of the World Championship.

On 30 January 2011, Bond won theSnooker Shoot-Out event. This involved the top 64 players in the world playing 10-minute matches decided on a single frame. He picked up the £32,000 prize money as well as the Snooker Shoot-Out trophy, beatingRobert Milkins 58–24 in the final.^[8]

He made a good start to the2011–12 season by qualifying for the first two ranking event tournaments, theAustralian Goldfields Open and theShanghai Masters. He lost toNeil Robertson andMark Selby respectively in the first round.^[9] He also qualified for theWorld Open, but was defeated by amateur playerLu Ning in the wildcard round.^[9] Bond finished the season ranked world number 45.^[10]

He once again qualified for theAustralian Goldfields Open in the2012–13 season, but lost to Robertson 1–5 in the last 32.^[11] In December, he reached theWorld Open inHaikou, China, with wins overJimmy White andJamie Burnett. At the venue he saw off Zhu Yinghui 5–3 in the wildcard round and received a bye through to the last 16 due to the withdrawal ofAli Carter.^[11] There he lost 1–5 toJudd Trump.^[12] Bond was also crownedWorld Seniors champion during the season without dropping a frame in a total of seven matches, concluding with a 2–0 victory againstTony Chappel in the final.^[13] His season ended when he was beaten 8–10 by McManus in the third round ofWorld Championship Qualifying.^[14] He dropped a solitary place during the year to end it ranked world number 46.^[15]

He reached the final of theWorld Seniors Championship for the second year in a row in the2013–14 season, losing 1–2 toSteve Davis.^[16] He only won two matches at the main venue of ranking events all season, his best run coming in theChina Open, where he beat Pinches 5–2 before losing to Selby 1–5 in the last 32.^[17] He fell 11 spots from the start of the season to end it as the world number 57.^[18]

He produced a comeback in the second round of the2014 UK Championship, as from 0–5 down against world number fiveBarry Hawkins he took six successive frames to advance.^[19] However, in the third roundAnthony McGill recovered from 1–4 down to eliminate him 6–5.^[20] The furthest Bond could progress in a ranking event this season was at theIndian Open, where he beatRyan Day 4–1 andDechawat Poomjaeng 4–3, before losing 1–4 toChris Wakelin in the last 16.^[21] He fell just outside the top 64 at the end of the year as he was ranked 65th, but he earned a two-year extension via the European Order of Merit.^[22][23]

At the2016 Indian Open, Bond defeatedRicky Walden 4–1,Sam Baird 4–2,John Astley 4–2 and Ebdon 4–3 to reach his first ranking event semi-final since 2002, where he lost 1–4 toKyren Wilson.^[24] He had started practising at the Snooker Academy in Sheffield with young Chinese players and stated that this has contributed to him regaining the hunger and passion to play snooker.^[25] He would have a losing run of 10 successive matches shortly afterwards, but at theGibraltar Open he beat five players to reach his second semi-final of the season, where he failed to pick up a frame in a defeat toShaun Murphy.^[26] Bond kept his place on the tour through the one-year ranking list.^[27]

Bond made a surprise run to the quarter-finals of the2019 UK Championship at the age of 54 winning a number of close matches. He defeated future world championLuca Brecel 6–5 in his opening round followed by another 6–5 win overLouis Heathcote. His greatest victory en route to the quarter-finals was a 6–3 win against reigning world champion and world number 1 Judd Trump in the last 32 having trailed 3–1.^[28] Bond lost 6–5 toMark Allen in the quarter-finals having led Allen 3–1.^[29]

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score
Runner-up	1.	1990	Grand Prix	Stephen Hendry	5–10
Runner-up	2.	1995	World Snooker Championship	Stephen Hendry	9–18
Runner-up	3.	1995	Thailand Classic	John Parrott	6–9
Winner	1.	1996	British Open	John Higgins	9–8
Runner-up	4.	1997	Thailand Open	Peter Ebdon	7–9

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score
Runner-up	1.	1993	Strachan Challenge – Event 2	Troy Shaw	4–9

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score
Winner	1.	1992	King's Cup	James Wattana	8–7
Runner-up	1.	1994	Pontins Professional	Ken Doherty	5–9
Winner	2.	1995	Red & White Challenge	John Parrott	8–6
Runner-up	2.	1996	Pontins Professional(2)	Ken Doherty	7–9
Winner	3.	1996	Malta Grand Prix	Tony Drago	7–3
Winner	4.	1997	Scottish Masters	Alan McManus	9–8
Winner	5.	2009	World Games	David Grace	3–0
Winner	6.	2010	World Seniors Championship Qualifying Event	Peter Lines	4–3
Winner	7.	2011	Snooker Shoot Out	Robert Milkins	1–0
Winner	8.	2012	World Seniors Championship	Tony Chappel	2–0
Runner-up	3.	2013	World Seniors Championship	Steve Davis	1–2

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score
Runner-up	1.	2008	Pontins Spring Open	David Grace	1–5
Winner	1.	2010	Pontins Spring Open	Stephen Craigie	5–2
Runner-up	2.	2014	Vienna Snooker Open	Mark King	2–5
Runner-up	3.	2017	Vienna Snooker Open(2)	David Grace	2–5

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score
Winner	1.	1989	English Amateur Championship	Barry Pinches	13–11

Wikimedia Commons has media related toNigel Bond.

• Nigel Bond at theWorld Snooker Tour (archived)
• Nigel Bond at Snooker.org

• 1965 births
• Living people
• English snooker players
• People from Darley Dale
• Sportspeople from Derbyshire
• World Games gold medalists for Great Britain
• World Games medalists in cue sports
• World Seniors Championship champions
• Medalists at the 2009 World Games

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