Gareth Allen

Gareth Allen (born 9 September 1988 in Mynydd Isa, near Buckley, Flintshire) is a Welsh former professional snooker player.

Career Allen started playing snooker aged three, joining his local snooker club and playing on full sized table at twelve. However, his run did enable him to feature in several ranking events during the 2012–13 season, with the highlight being a win over then top 32 player Rory McLeod 4–2 in qualifying in his home event the 2013 Welsh Open. His next match against John Higgins was televised, which he lost 4–1.

Allen was successful in the 2015 Q School and earned a tour card for the 2015–16 and 2016–17 seasons by beating Alex Taubman 4–2 in his final match of the second event. He won his first match as a professional by beating Adam Edge 5–3 in Australian Goldfields Open qualifying, but lost 5–1 to Jamie Burnett in the second round. Allen saw off Barry Pinches and Aditya Mehta both 5–1 in the qualifying rounds for the Shanghai Masters, before losing by a reversal of this scoreline to Li Hang. He made his debut at the venue stage of a ranking event in York for the UK Championship and was defeated 6–1 by Liang Wenbo. Allen then lost 15 successive matches from August 2015 until the start of the 2016–17 season, when he beat Kurt Maflin 4–3 to qualify for the Riga Masters. Allen won a match at the venue stage of a ranking event for the first time by edging past Ross Muir 4–3 in the opening round of the Scottish Open and then lost 4–3 to Mike Dunn. A 5–4 win over Robin Hull saw him qualify for the China Open, where he was beaten 5–0 by Ronnie O'Sullivan in the second round. Allen fell off the tour at the end of the season as he was placed 110th in the world rankings. Following his relegation from the tour, Allen announced his retirement from the game and started coaching after gaining his coaching qualification through the WPBSA.

Performance and rankings timeline

Performance Table LegendLQ lost in the qualifying draw#R lost in the early rounds of the tournament(WR = Wildcard round, RR = Round robin)QF lost in the quarter-finalsSF lost in the semi-finalsF lost in the finalW won the tournamentDNQ did not qualify for the tournamentA did not participate in the tournamentWD withdrew from the tournament NH / Not Held means an event was not held.NR / Non-Ranking Event means an event is/was no longer a ranking event.R / Ranking Event means an event is/was a ranking event.MR / Minor-Ranking Event means an event is/was a minor-ranking event.

Career finals

Amateur finals: 2 Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final ScoreRunner-up 1. 2010 0–8Runner-up 2. 2013 2–7