Category

Oceania - New Zealand

First Name

Dene

Last Name

O'Kane

Town / Country

Auckland, New Zealand

Date of birth

24 February 1963

Club

--

High Break

140 (1990 World Championship)

Ranking:

Highest: WSA No 18

Turned Pro

1984-2002

Tournament Record

2004 IBSF World Seniors Championship

2004 New Zealand Seniors Champion

1989 Hong Kong Open runner up

1989 World Cup Runner Up (Rest of World Team)

1987 Embassy World Championship Quarter Final

1980 New Zealand Champion

1977 New Zealand Under 21 Champion

Biography

Dene has been New Zealand’s leading snooker player for twenty years.  Dene caused one a major upsets in the 1987 Embassy World Championship. He won nine consecutive frames in defeating Canada’s Cliff Thorburn in the first round, and then went on to defeat Welshman Doug Mountjoy 13-5. He eventually bowed out 13-6 to Jimmy White in the Quarter Finals.
He came close to winning his first world ranking title at the Hong Kong Open in 1989, leading 8-6 against Mike Hallett in the final only to lose 9-8.
That was the same score line O’Kane’s Rest of the World team went down by against England in the final of the 1989 World Cup. The Kiwi lost the decider against Steve Davis on a re-spotted black after a battle lasting 73 minutes and 30 seconds - the longest frame to be shown on television.
O’Kane spent a total of eight seasons in the top 32 and three times held the No 18 ranking.