Ebbo the Great! (Peter Ebdon)

Member Name: mattydalton

Product:	Peter Ebdon
Date:	09/05/02 (102 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great to watch.

Disadvantages: Very slow player.

I've been converted!!! I have never been a fan of Peter Ebdon, but after watching him lift this year's World Championship, I have changed my opinion of him. I was particularly struck by the high quality of his safety game and the way in which he would go for a shot that most players would not have tried. Not only that but he actually potted most of them! I thought I would find out a bit about the man and tell you what I had learned, so here goes...

Peter Ebdon, whose nickname is Ebbo, was born on the 27th August 1970. At the age of 21, in 1991, he turned professional. He took the snooker world by storm, bursting onto the circuit with a 10-4 hammering of 6 times world champion Steve Davis in the 1st round of the world championship. He went on to reach the quarter finals that year, and his achievement also earned him the WPBSA Young Player of the Year award. About a year later he won his 1st ranking title, in the form of the Grand Prix.

In 1995, Ebbo, who lives in Wellingborough(Northamptonshire), won his 2nd ranking title. This time he won the Rothman's Grand Prix, beating John Higgins in the final by a 7-4 margin. He followed this success up with the Regal Masters in 1996, beating Alan McManus 9-6, and the Thailand Open in 1997, beating Nigel Bond 9-7. By this time, Peter Ebdon had established himself as a class act. As he hit the high point, though, he slid into a slow demise. He fell from being a high ranked player to the lowly depths of 12th, and didn't win another ranking title till the 2000/01 season. Ebbo picked up his game to beat Jimmy White 9-6 in the final of the British Open in 2000, a win which must have renewed his self-belief after 3 years without a title. He followed this up by winning the Regal Scottish Masters in 2001, beating Ken Doherty 9-7 in a close final.
And now, onto this years world championship....

Round 1 Michael Judge 10-4
Round 2 Joe Perry 13-7
Round 3(QF) Antho
ny Hamilton 13-6
Round 4(SF) Matthew Stevens 17-16
Final Stephen Hendry 18-17

Ebbo coasted through the first 3 rounds without much trouble. When he reached the semifinals and drew Stevens, I immediately expected a Stevens-O'Sullivan final. How wrong I was!! Ebdon and Stevens both performed exceptionally well in this dual, with Ebdon finally getting the better of Stevens after a hard fought battle. Throughout the tournament Ebdon's safety play had been improving and he was potting all sorts of shots that you wouldn't expect.

Ebdon-Hendry seemed a mouth-watering prospect, and so it was. Throughout most of the match Ebdon and Hendry were level pegging, with neither competitor willing to give any room. As the end of the match neared, Ebdon grew in strength and in the penultimate frame, nearly took the win, but made a silly mistake(I think on the black after potting a red-please, correct me if I am wrong) and Hendry took to the table to level it at 17 frames apiece. As the final frame started both players made several silly errors, caused by nerves. The reds were strewn across the table and every time one player missed, I was sure the other was going to clear up and win. As it was, the control shifted 4 or 5 times, before Ebdon eventually settled into the frame. He made a break of 59 to take the frame and win the match. Interestingly, at the start of the frame, when Hendry made a foul to give Ebdon a 4-0 lead in the frame, both men were tied on 1836 points throughout the match. I wonder what the odds of both men having the same points tally at the start of the final frame would be.

And there it was, Ebdon had eventually won the world championship. It only took him 12 years. Before this year's final, Ebdon had met Hendry in two ranking title finals and lost both. He was hammered 10-3 in the 1995 UK championship, and beaten 18-12 in the 1996 world championship final. So far in his career he has chalked up tw
o 147 breaks in professional tournaments. Both came in 1992. One at the Strachan Professional and the other at the UK championships. Also in 1992, he became the 1st player to hit 4 centuries out of 5 frames in the European Open qualifying competition in Blackpool. His career earnings total over 1,500,000.

Summary: