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Alfie Burden

Burden at the 2016 Paul Hunter Classic
Born	(1976-12-14) 14 December 1976 (age 48) Harrow, London, England
Sport country	England
Professional	1994–2008, 2010–2020, 2021–present
Highest ranking	38 (2001/02–2002/03)
Current ranking	80 (as of 16 December 2024)
Maximum breaks	1
Century breaks	130 (as of 23 December 2024)
Best ranking finish	Quarter-final (x4)

Alfred Burden (born 14 December 1976) is an English professional snooker player from London.

Career

Burden originally had his eyes set on making a career as a professional footballer, but a badly broken leg curtailed this ambition. He spent a couple of seasons at Arsenal F.C. as a schoolboy apprentice, but was with Swindon Town F.C. at the time of the injury. Burden soon showed he was well above average at snooker and qualified for the World Championship in 1998. He was defeated by world number 11 Tony Drago by 8–10.

In the 2006–07 season, Burden qualified for the China Open. He defeated Shokat Ali, Rod Lawler and former top-16 player David Gray to qualify for the tournament but lost in the wild-card round to Chinese player Mei Xiwen, 2–5. He dropped off the main tour after the 2007/08 season.

On 25 November 2009 he won the IBSF World Snooker Championship in Hyderabad, India, beating Brazilian Igor Figueiredo 10–8 in the final. With this he earned a place on the 2010/2011 professional main tour and did well enough over that and the following season to end 2011/12 ranked world number 60, inside the top 64 who retained their places for the 2012–13 season.

Burden had an exceptional 2012/2013 season in the minor-ranking Players Tour Championship events. In the Second Event he beat Andrew Higginson, James Wattana, Barry Hawkins, Robert Milkins and Ryan Day to reach the semi-finals. There, he was defeated 1–4 by Martin Gould. In the European Tour Event 3 played in Antwerp, Belgium, Burden beat Gareth Allen, Joe Swail and Mark King, before losing 3–4 to Neil Robertson in the last 16. These results, together with three other last 32 defeats, helped Burden to 23rd place on the PTC Order of Merit, just inside the top 26 who qualified for the Finals. In the Finals, Burden beat world number one Judd Trump 4–3, clinching the match with a 116 break to reach the last 16, the joint furthest he has ever been in a ranking event and the first since 2000. Burden subsequently lost 2–4 to Xiao Guodong in the last 16. He then reached the final round of World Championship Qualifying with wins over Paul Davison and Dave Harold, but lost 5–10 to Dominic Dale to end the season ranked world number 53.

Burden qualified for the first round of the 2013 Wuxi Classic to begin the 2013–14 season, but lost 5–2 to Ali Carter in the opening round. He saw off three players to reach the first round of the Australian Goldfields Open and then beat Michael Holt 5–2 to match his best ever performance in a ranking event. In the last 16 he lost 5–3 against Mark Davis. At the European Tour event, the Gdynia Open, Burden won four matches but was then defeated 4–3 by Sam Baird in the quarter-finals. He finished 34th on the Order of Merit, nine places outside of qualifying for the Finals. Burden got through to the second round of the China Open courtesy of Tony Drago's withdrawal and then lost 5–3 to Jimmy White.

Burden won just two matches in his first eight events of the 2014–15 season but then won four matches to advance to the quarter-finals of the Xuzhou Open, where he lost 4–2 to Tom Ford. He beat David Grace 5–3 and Sam Baird 5–4 in qualifying for the German Masters. Burden defeated Michael Georgiou 5–3 in the first round, closing the match with a 112 break, but fell short of reaching the first ranking event quarter-final of his career as Ryan Day knocked him out 5–2. He ended the season 67th in the world rankings which would have relegated him from the tour, but his Asian Tour performances earned him a new two-year card.

Burden reached the first ranking event quarter-final of his career in the 2016 China Open courtesy of victories over Robbie Williams, Joe Perry, Rhys Clark and Rory McLeod, where he lost 5–1 to Stephen Maguire. He held a 9–5 advantage over Ryan Day in the second round of World Championship qualifying, before being defeated 10–9.

Burden edged out Ryan Day 4–3 to qualify for the 2016 European Masters and then beat Yu Delu 4–1 and Ricky Walden 4–3 to play in his second career ranking event quarter-final, where he lost 4–0 to Mark Selby.

Four successive wins saw Burden reach the quarter-finals of the minor ranking 2017 Gibraltar Open, where he lost 4–2 to Michael White.

In December 2016 Burden scored his first 147 Maximum Break in competition, coming against Daniel Wells in the English Open. Burden went on to lose the match 4-3 but came away with £12,000 prize money on account of his high break.

In January 2017, Burden was found guilty of placing bets totalling £25,000 on snooker matches including those he had played in. He had bet on himself to win and over the 86 bets in 10 years he had lost £2,995. Burden was fined £5,000 and given a six-month ban, which would only have come into force if he had bet on snooker again before January 2018. His second quarter-final of the season came at the Gibraltar Open and he made breaks of 131 and 109 to force a deciding frame with Nigel Bond, but lost it.

Burden went into Qualifying for the 2018 World Championships in danger of losing his place on the Tour and in need of a good showing to retain his place. He achieved this, clinching the deciding frame in the second round of qualifying to beat higher-ranked player David Gilbert 10-9 and secure his place on the Tour for two more years, despite having finished the season outside the top 64, on account of his performances in the 2017/18 season. Burden lost out to Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 10–8 in the final round of qualifying and thus failed to emulate his achievement of 1998 in reaching the last 32 and a place at snooker's biggest stage, the Crucible Theatre.

In December 2018 Burden defeated former world champions Peter Ebdon and John Higgins on his way to reaching the quarter-finals of the Scottish Open. Remarkably, in rounds 2 and 3 he came back from 3-0 down to win 4–3 against Marco Fu and Zhang Yong, respectively. A lacklustre performance in the quarter-final resulted in a 5–0 loss to the eventual tournament winner Mark Allen.

He has the highest number of centuries for any player never to have been ranked in the top 32.

Burden announced his retirement from snooker on 2 September 2020. However, he returned to Q School in May 2021 and was successful in Event Two, winning a two-year Tour Card.

Performance and rankings timeline

1. ^ New players don't have a ranking
2. ^ He was an amateur
3. Players qualified through Asian Tour Order of Merit started the season without prize money ranking points
4. Players qualified One Year Ranking List started the season without ranking points
5. Players qualified through the Q School started the season without ranking points
6. The event was called the International Open (1994/1995–1996/1997) and the Players Championship (2003/2004)
7. The event was called the German Open (1995/1996–1997/1998)
8. The event was called the Grand Prix (1994/1995–2000/2001 and 2004/2005–2009/2010) and the LG Cup (2001/2002–2003/2004)
9. The event was called the Players Tour Championship Grand Final (2010/2011–2015/2016)
10. The event was called the Dubai Classic (1994/1995) and the Thailand Classic (1995/1996)
11. The event was called the Thailand Open (1994/1995–1996/1997)
12. The event was called the Jiangsu Classic (2008/2009–2009/2010)
13. The event was called the Australian Open (1994/1995–1995/1996) and the Australian Masters (1995/1996)
14. The event was called the Grand Prix Fürth (2004/2005) and the Fürth German Open (2005/2006–2006/2007)
15. The event was called the China International (1997/1998–1998/1999)
16. The event was called the Riga Open (2014/2015–2015/2016)
17. The event was called the European Open (1994/1995-1996/1997 and 2001/2002-2003/2004), еру Irish Open (1998/1999) and the Malta Cup (2004/2005–2007/2008)

Career finals

Non-ranking finals: 3 (1 title)

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score
Winner	1.	1998	UK Tour - Event 1	Anthony Davies	6–5
Runner-up	1.	1998	UK Tour - Event 2	Joe Swail	1–6
Runner-up	1.	2023	World Seniors Championship	Jimmy White	3–5

Amateur finals: 5 (2 titles)

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score
Winner	1.	1993	English Under-17 Championship	David Gray	5–2
Runner-up	1.	1993	UK Under-19 Championship	Lee Walker	1–4
Runner-up	2.	1993	Pontins Autumn Championship	Adrian Gunnell	2–5
Runner-up	3.	2008	PIOS - Event 5	Chris Norbury	2–6
Winner	2.	2009	IBSF World Snooker Championship	Igor Figueiredo	10–8

References

1. https://www.mylondon.news/sport/other-sport/whirlwind-is-my-hero-6002096
2. "2009 IBSF World Snooker Championships". Global Snooker. Archived from the original on 8 April 2010. Retrieved 6 July 2010.
3. "Official World Ranking List for the 2012/2013 Season" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 May 2012. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
4. ^ "Alfie Burden 2012/2013". Snooker.org. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
5. "Order of Merit 2012/2013". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 28 April 2013. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
6. "Betfair World Championship Qualifiers". Snooker.org. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
7. "Official World Snooker Ranking List For The 2013/2014 Season" (PDF). World Snooker. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 June 2013. Retrieved 24 May 2013.
8. ^ "Alfie Burden 2013/2014". Snooker.org. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
9. "Snooker - Fu recovers to knock out Murphy in Australia". Eurosport. Archived from the original on 2 May 2014. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
10. "Gdynia Glory For Maximum Man Murphy". World Snooker. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
11. "European Order of Merit 2013/2014". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 8 April 2014. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
12. "China Open: Jimmy White and Peter Ebdon win second-round ties". BBC Sport. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
13. ^ "Alfie Burden makes last 16 of snooker's German Masters". Welwyn Hatfield News. Archived from the original on 27 October 2016. Retrieved 10 April 2015.
14. "Alfie Burden 2014/2015". Snooker.org. Retrieved 10 April 2015.
15. "Berlin loss for Welwyn Garden City's's Alfie Burden". Welwyn Hatfield News. Archived from the original on 10 April 2015. Retrieved 10 April 2015.
16. "World Rankings After 2015 World Championship". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 7 May 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
17. "Asian Order of Merit 2014/2015". Snooker.org. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
18. "Maguire Snatches Crucible Seeding". World Snooker. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
19. "Ryan Day comeback denies Alfie Burden as Ding Junhui remains on course for World Snooker Championship qualification". Live Snooker. Archived from the original on 13 October 2016. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
20. "Alfie Burden 2016/2017". Snooker.org. Retrieved 6 January 2017.
21. "Burden Makes First 147". World Snooker. 11 October 2016. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
22. "Alfie Burden: Snooker player banned for betting on matches". BBC Sport. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
23. "Alfie Burden 3–4 Nigel Bond". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 2 April 2017. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
24. @ABOFLONDON (2 September 2020). "After allowing myself time to process..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
25. "Ranking History". Snooker.org. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
26. "Country Page - England". Global Snooker Centre. Archived from the original on 4 October 2008. Retrieved 16 May 2024.
27. "Walker in Open run". Daily Telegraph. London. 14 August 1993. p. 23.
28. Yates, Phil (20 October 1993). "Hotshot Gunnell grabs all the glory". Birmingham Evening Mail. p. 40.

External links

• Alfie Burden at the World Snooker Tour
• Profile on Global Snooker

• 1976 births
• Living people
• Snooker players from London
• People from Paddington
• Sportspeople from the City of Westminster