Dominic Dale

Dominic Dale

Dominic Dale at the 2014 German Masters
Born	(1971-12-29) 29 December 1971 (age 45) Coventry, England
Sport country	Wales
Nickname	The Spaceman
Professional	1992–
Highest ranking	19 (1999/00)
Current ranking	35 (as of 18 December 2016)
Career winnings	£1,138,547
Highest break	145 (1999 UK Championship)
Century breaks	200
Tournament wins
Ranking	2
Minor-ranking	1
Non-ranking	1

Dominic Dale (born Christopher Dale on 29 December 1971) is a Welsh professional snooker player and occasional snooker commentator and presenter for the BBC. He is often referred to by commentators as the greatest player never to have been in the top 16.

Dale was born in Coventry, England. He won the Welsh Amateur Championship, which allowed him to compete at the World Amateur Championship in Bangkok. Dale reached the final, but lost 9–11 against Noppadon Noppachorn. Dale turned professional for the 1992/1993 season.

He has won two ranking tournaments in his career, the first of which – the Grand Prix in 1997 – he won while ranked number 54 in the world, beating then world number 2 John Higgins 9–6 in the final. It took him a decade to repeat the achievement at the 2007 Shanghai Masters, where he defeated compatriot Ryan Day 10–6 in the final, from 2–6 behind. On his way to the Shanghai final he beat Rory McLeod, Ken Doherty, Adrian Gunnell, Dave Harold and Mark Selby.

Both of his ranking victories were in the season-opening tournaments; he also reached the semi-finals of the season-opening events in 2002 (LG Cup) and 2006 (Northern Ireland Trophy). He also beat Peter Ebdon at the 2008 Malta Cup, despite a bout of stomach cramps and a drinking session the night before the match.

Dale is the only player to have won multiple ranking tournaments without ever reaching the top 16, but he was 14th on the one-year list for both 1997/1998 and 1999/2000 (missing out due to an unsuccessful 1998/1999 season).