Lilley began playing snooker at the age of 13.[4] His first big success was his victory at the (amateur) European Championships in 1995, defeating his compatriot David Gray 8–7. In the same year, he lost to Paul Hunter in the final of the Northern Amateur championship.[4] In 1997, he reached the final of the English Amateur Championship for the first time and won it with a score of 8–7 against Robert Marshall. However, unable to find sponsorship in the wake of the sport's ban on tobacco advertising, and with only around six tournaments a year at that point, he felt he could not afford to turn professional and so remained an amateur.[4]
In 2000, he lost the final of the English Amateur Championship, 5–8 against Nick Marsh.[5]
In February 2002, he participated for the first time in qualifying for the World Snooker Championship, but lost in the second qualifying round against Timothy Paling.
In 2004, Lilley won the English Amateur Championship for a third time, with an 8–6 victory over Wayne Cooper in the final.[5] In the 2004 World Amateur Snooker Championship, he was narrowly defeated in the semi-finals 6–8 by the eventual champion Mark Allen. In qualifying for the 2005 World Snooker Championship, he retired in the third round against Stuart Mann. In the English Amateur Championship 2007, he lost in the deciding frame of the final against Martin Gould by 7–8.[5]
Lilley tried to qualify for the main tour via the 2016 Q School. In the first tournament he reached the final of his group but then lost against Chen Zhe; in the second tournament he retired in the second round. Although he missed the qualification for the Main Tour, as 17th on the Q-School Order of Merit he could participate as a substitute for tournaments of the 2016–17 snooker season.
At the 2016 Indian Open, the second world ranking tournament of the season, he qualified for a ranking tournament for the first time. After defeating Tian Pengfei 4–3 in qualifying, he eliminated Mike Dunn, Mark Williams and Robert Milkins in the main round to reach the quarterfinals, where he lost to England's Shaun Murphy 2–4.[7]
He was first on the 2018 Q School Order of Merit. In the 18/19 season, he just missed out on gaining a tour card for the 19/20 season numerous times; he was 4th on the challenge tour list, and lost 5–4 to Kacper Filipiak in the 2019 EBSA European Snooker Championship, where a win would have granted him a place on the tour. He appeared in Snooker 19, making him the only player in the game who has never turned pro (the other amateurs in the game are former pros).[citation needed]
Lilley beat Sean Maddocks 4–0 in the final qualifying round of the first event of the 2019 Q School, finally becoming a professional after 30 years as an amateur.[2] While an amateur, he had worked in the insurance industry.[4] Lilley later remarked that his timing was bad, as no sooner had he joined the professional tour then the COVID-19 pandemic led to the mass cancellation of tournaments.[4]
After a successful 2023-2024 season - the best of his career in terms of ranking points - David finished the season ranked 64th, reaching the top 64 for the first time at the age of 48.[10]
James Warren White is an English professional snooker player who has won four seniors World titles. Nicknamed "The Whirlwind" because of his fluid, swift and attacking style of play, White is the 1980 World Amateur Champion, 2009 Six-red World champion, a record four-time World Seniors Champion, 2019 Seniors 6-Red World Champion and 1984 World Doubles champion with Alex Higgins.
David Gray is an English former professional snooker player from London.
Reanne Evans is an English professional snooker player who competes on the World Snooker Tour and the World Women's Snooker Tour and works as a pundit on televised snooker broadcasts. Widely recognised as the most successful female player in the sport's history, she is a record 12-time winner of the World Women's Snooker Championship and is the reigning World Mixed Doubles champion. She received an MBE in the 2020 Birthday Honours for her services to women's snooker.
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Lee Walker is a Welsh former professional snooker player and former World Seniors Champion. He is an official WPBSA coach and is the long term coach to Mark Williams MBE.
Jimmy Robertson is an English professional snooker player.
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Igor Almeida Figueiredo is a Brazilian former professional snooker player. Since being relegated from the main professional tour, he has competed in the World Seniors Tour.
Adam Duffy is an English former professional snooker player.
Gary Wilson is an English professional snooker player from Wallsend in North Tyneside, Tyne and Wear.
Alexander Ursenbacher is a Swiss professional snooker player from Rheinfelden. Also popularly known as 'The Swiss Fish', he is the first snooker player from Switzerland to have competed professionally.
James Cahill is an English former professional snooker player from Blackpool. Cahill first turned professional in 2013, aged 17, after winning the European Under 21 Championships, but returned to amateur status in 2017.
Akani Songsermsawad, better known as Sunny Akani, is a Thai professional snooker player.
Eden Sharav is an Israeli-Scottish former professional snooker player. He was born in Israel to an Israeli father and a Scottish-born mother.
Jamie Clarke is a Welsh professional snooker player.
Fan Zhengyi is a Chinese professional snooker player. He won the IBSF World Under-21 Snooker Championship in 2017, and turned professional in 2018. He had a breakthrough season in 2021–22 when he reached his first ranking quarter-final at the 2022 German Masters and then won his first ranking title at the 2022 European Masters, defeating then six-time world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan 10–9 in the final. He became the fifth Chinese player to win a ranking title, following Ding Junhui, Liang Wenbo, Yan Bingtao, and Zhao Xintong.
The 2021–22 snooker season was a series of snooker tournaments played from July 2021 to May 2022, including the professional World Snooker Tour but also featuring events for female, senior, and Q School players. The season saw a record five players claim their first professional ranking titles: David Gilbert, Zhao Xintong, Hossein Vafaei, Fan Zhengyi, and Robert Milkins. Nutcharut Wongharuthai won her first World Women's Snooker Championship, becoming the only player besides Reanne Evans and Ng On-yee to win the women's world title in 19 years. Ronnie O'Sullivan won the World Snooker Championship, equalling Stephen Hendry's modern era record of seven world titles and becoming the oldest world champion in snooker history at the age of 46 years and 148 days. Lee Walker won his first World Seniors Championship.
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