| Biography: |
Nicknamed' The Robin Hood of Snooker' by MC, Alan Hughes,
Anthony started playing at 14 and rapidly made a name for
himself on the amateur circuit.
In 1998/9 he won the Hotshots Pro-Am and £1000 and, aged
17 put together two maximum breaks at his club in Nottingham.
He also beat a 13 year-old Ronnie O'Sullivan to win an
Under-17 event in Leicester. He was the Nottingham amateur
champion at 17 and topped the Snooker Scene amateur rankings
in 1989. He went on to beat Joe Swail to win the 1990 Pontins
Open before joining the mass influx of players to the
professional ranks in 1991.
He made a good start to his professional career, reaching the
last 32 of the Asian Open and the last 64 of two other ranking
events ending that first season with a very creditable ranking
of 85th. In 1992/93 he reached the last 32 of three of the
major ranking events and the last 64 in three more. He also
reached one semi and one quarter-final in the minor ranking
events, which were held that year. After four more last 32
finishes in 1993/94 he was making a few people take notice of
him and on the verge of the top 32 with a ranking of 35th.
His steady progress continued into 1994/95, twice reaching the
last 16 in the Grand Prix and Regal Welsh. This took him into
the top 32 at number 31 and an even better season followed
including a first visit to the Crucible and he moved up to
22nd. He had still not reached the quarter-finals of any major
event however. This was still the case at the end of 1996/97
even though his consistency had taken him into the top 16 at
number 14.
A bit of a breakthrough came for Anthony in 1997/8 when he
reached the quarter-finals of both the German and Welsh opens
followed by his first semi-final in the Thailand Masters. He
was also a quarter-finalist in the Masters at Wembley and had
moved up to eleventh. In the next season he again reached the
Welsh quarters and then the semi-finals at Wembley before
going on to his first final - the British Open at Plymouth. In
a close match, Fergal O'Brien got the best of several tight
frames and Anthony had to be content with the runner-up
cheque. His ranking crept up to tenth but 1999/2000, although
he reached four more quarter-finals including the Embassy, he
slipped back to 11th.
2000/01 was a bit of a disaster. Before the season began he
broke his wrist trying to help a friend who was being robbed
and had to miss the opening two ranking events and to make
matters worse, he lost his opening match in the next three.
This left him with a lot of ground to make up and but last 16
spots in all the final three events including the Crucible
were not enough to prevent him slipping out of the top 16
after four seasons at the highest level.
He began the new season at 19th and things did not go well for
him losing his opening game in four ranking events. Things
turned round in the China Open where he reached only his
second ranking final, losing to Mark Williams, and a good run
at the Crucible took him to the quarter-finals. Although he
did not get his top 16 place back, his good finish to the
season took him back up to 17th.
He is noted as one of the best break builders around even
though not perhaps the most exiting of players to watch and
this should help him, not only to regain his place amongst the
games elite, but also perhaps to go on and achieve a major
title.
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