By Elliott West
Introduction
Snooker has produced many lesser known players along the years, one of which is the former professional player, Paddy Browne. Browne was born in 1965 and is from Dublin in Ireland, was a professional from 1993-1997 and had a high of 43 in the rankings in the 1987-1988 season.
Snooker Professional Career
Turning professional in 1983, Paddy entered four tournaments in his first season with his most successful performance, being at the 1984 World Championship where he reached the last 48 stage of the tournament. He beat Steve Duggan and Colin Roscoe before eventually losing to Eddie Sinclair, 1-10. This was followed by a further push, deeper into a tournament when he recorded his first last 32 finish in the 1985 Classic. Browne was defeated by Jimmy White, 5-2. Spurred on by this good run, Paddy went one better in the 1986 Open where he overcame Dessie Sheehan, Joe Johnson and Mark Bennett, reaching the last 16, before losing to Stephen Hendry, 3-5.
As a result of his wins, Paddy rose to his career best of 43 in the rankings but sadly this was where his luck ran out. In the 1987-1988 season, Browne only managed to reach the last 32 stage once in the 1988 British Open. His appearance at the World Championship, ended in further misery when after a promising start, levelling his match against Steve James, 1-1, Paddy lost nine consecutive frames to be defeated, 1-10.
However just when he thought his luck had run out, Paddy managed to put his slide to 54 in the rankings to the back of his mind. A sharp upturn in the 1988/1989 season, led to a quarter-final appearance at the 1989 Classic. Browne beat Ian Williamson, Mike Hallett, Steve James and Tony Chappel. In his next match, he faced an in-form Doug Mountjoy. Trailing 1-4, Paddy fought back to 3-4 but Doug wasn’t having any of it and after winning the eighth frame by four points, the Irishman lost the match to the eventual tournament winner, 3-5. There was some light after this sore defeat as later in the year, he won his only professional title, the non-ranking WPBSA Event Two invitational where he defeated Peter Francisco, 5-1 in the final.
More success followed at the 1989 World Championship where the Dubliner defeated Steve Meakin, 10-9 after trailing 4-9, Murdo MacLeod, 10-6 and a 10-0 whitewash of Steve Longworth. As a result, he reached the last 32 stage and was drawn against Willie Thorne. Leading the match, 5-4, Browne couldn’t keep up the momentum and eventually lost the match, 5-10. He did however finish the season, 44th in the rankings.
The next few seasons brought no success and Paddy had to endure painful defeats. He only two last 128 finishes with a 5-2 defeat at the hands of Frankie Chan in the 1992 Strachan Open and a 10-0 whitewash by Jason Ferguson at the World Championship. By 1994, Browne had fallen to 164th in the rankings and his last professional appearance would be at the 1995 World Championship qualifiers where he lost to Surinder Gill, 3-10. Paddy was eventually relegated from the main tour in 1997, aged 32.
Summary
Paddy Browne was clearly one of the better lesser known players from the past and was able to cut deep into tournaments throughout his professional career. Making seven centuries during his career and career winnings of £64,150, his best performance was when he reached the he quarter-final of the 1989 Classic. Paddy once had a scuffle with Frankie Chan at the 1992 Strachan Open over a free ball. A misunderstanding of an outburst by Chan saying, :
“Out-of-order Paddy, out-of-order…”
Frankie Chan
led to scuffle breaking out between the two but what Frankie Chan was actually referring to, was that the toilets were out of order.
