Steven Hallworth (born 1 December 1995) is an English former professional snooker player. He is the only ever qualified professional from Lincoln. He is a practice partner of Stuart Carrington.[3]
Career
Junior
Hallworth started playing snooker aged 10 after trying pool on a family holiday.[4] He then found success in junior and amateur levels and was given the opportunity to play future World Champion Mark Selby aged 12 in 2009, after winning that year's Under-17 Lincoln and District Billiards and Snooker Association crown.[4][5] He was also one 8 finalists in the 2010 Rileys Future Stars competition run by Ronnie O'Sullivan, but lost out to Joel Walker.[4]
Amateur
Hallworth then progressed on to Players Tour Championship events in 2011 and the 2013 Q School, but it wasn't until the 2013–14 when Hallworth started to progress to the main rounds of PTC events, a 4–3 defeat to Kurt Maflin in the Paul Hunter Classic[4][6] and a 4–0 loss to former World Champion Mark Williams in the Antwerp Open.[7] It was also Hallworth's televised debut.[4][8] Hallworth's performances in the EBSA Amateur Cup Events were enough to qualify him for the six-man play-off event, with three players winning two-year professional tour cards on the World Snooker Tour, with a win in the Antwerp event.[4] Hallworth beat Martin Ball 4–1 in the first round, before beating Mitchell Travis 4–3 in the final round to earn place on the tour the 2014–15 and 2015–16 seasons.[4][9][10]
Professional
Hallworth failed to qualify for the opening two ranking events in the 2014–15 season, but did secure his first win as a professional, beating Zak Surety 5–4 in the first qualifying round of the Australian Goldfields Open.[11] All 128 players on the snooker tour automatically play in the first round of the UK Championship and in Hallworth's debut at the venue stage of a ranking event he lost 6–1 to Mark Williams. In the Welsh Open first round he took Shaun Murphy to a deciding frame but lost it to be edged out 4–3.[12] Hallworth led reigning Indian Open champion Michael White 4–0 in the opening round of World Championship qualifying, before losing seven frames in a row and went on to be defeated 10–8.[12] He ended his first season on tour as the world number 116.[13]
A run of 10 consecutive defeats from June 2015 to December was ended when Hallworth overcame Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 5–4 in the German Masters qualifiers.[14] He then beat Andy Hicks 5–4 on the final black to play in a ranking event outside of the United Kingdom for the first time, but was whitewashed 5–0 by world number one Mark Selby.[5][15] Hallworth dropped off the tour at the end of the season and failed to advance through the 2016 Q School.[16]
At the end of the 2017/18 season, he entered the 2018 Q School in an attempt to win back a place on the professional snooker tour. He earnt a credible victory over Zhao Xintong.[19]
