Kurt Graham Maflin (born 8 August 1983) is an English-Norwegian former professional snooker player. A strong break-builder, Maflin has compiled more than 200 century breaks during his career and has made two 147 breaks in professional competition.
Maflin began playing snooker at the age of four, achieving a high break of 25 by the time he was five. He increased his time spent at the table practising. As a rated top junior player, Maflin represented England in the 1999 Home International series in Prestatyn, North Wales, where England were victorious.
After appearing in the finals of the English National Championships in the Under-13 and Under-15 categories, he went on to become the first person to retain the English Under-17 national title (once held by Paul Hunter) in 2000 after winning it for the first time in 1999.
When aged 14, Maflin was invited, on behalf of TV Times magazine, to team up with former World Champion Dennis Taylor to raise money for the Leukaemia Research Fund at the 1998 Liverpool Victoria Charity Challenge event. After meeting the world's top players, Maflin and Taylor won £4,300 for the charity, playing 'Pounds for Points'. Maflin also appeared twice on BBC1's popular snooker game show series Junior Big Break: Stars of the Future in 1997, and winning the contestant the grand prize of a holiday in 1998.
He began his professional career by playing in the Challenge Tour (which was at the time the second-level professional tour) in 2000.[citation needed] In 2001, Maflin reached the final of the English Open Championship and was runner-up in the European Championship Final staged in Riga, Latvia. The same year he won his place on World Snooker's Main Tour becoming the second youngest professional snooker player in the world at the time. Despite reaching the last 48 of the Welsh Open before losing to Tony Drago, the rest of Maflin's results were not strong enough to remain on the Main Tour, forcing him to return to the Challenge Tour. He won Event 4 and was back into Main Tour for the 2003/04 season, but again couldn't hold his place. He moved to Norway with his partner, female snooker player Anita Rizzuti, and nearly gave up snooker, but his interest was revived after an offer from Norwegian businessman Knut Pederson. "He said he would sponsor me if I made a century break in the final of one of the Norwegian league matches," Maflin explained. "I got a 137 in the first frame and never looked back since".
Return to competition
Maflin returned to serious competition for the 2006 Challenge Tour. He won this to return to the Main Tour for the 2007/08 season. He also won the gold medal at the 2006 IBSF World Championships in Amman, Jordan, beating Daniel Ward 11–8 in the final to become World Amateur Champion. Maflin compiled 15 century breaks on his way to victory and had to win 15 consecutive matches.
Maflin had a great run in the non-ranking Masters qualifying tournament, beating Judd Trump and Jimmy White to reach the final before losing out on a wild card place in the event to Barry Hawkins. However, his results in the ranking tournaments were disappointing, aside from last 48 appearance at the China Open. Following the black-ball defeat to Gareth Coppack in the first round match of the World Championship he was relegated from the tour, having finished only 82nd in the world rankings.
Maflin spent the 2008/09 season trying to re-qualify to the tour via PIOS, but he missed the opportunity by just 20 points, finishing 10th. He followed it by another near-miss the next season, finishing 15th. To make things worse, Maflin suffered a car crash which left him with a six-inch metal plate and seven screws in his shoulder. Nevertheless, he recovered to enter the 2010 EBSA European Play-Offs and beat Alex Borg 5–2 in the final to secure his return to the Main Tour.
2010/2011 season
Maflin had a great start to the season as in June 2010, at the inaugural Player's Tour Championship event in Sheffield, he compiled his first professional 147 break in his first round match against Michał Zieliński. However, he struggled for form in the subsequent events until the 2011 China Open, in which he defeated Simon Bedford, Jack Lisowski, Dave Harold and Mark King to reach the final stages of a major ranking event for the first time, making four centuries in the progress. In the last 32 he led Ding Junhui 4–1 but eventually lost 4–5. Maflin then lost a decider to Xiao Guodong in the World Championship qualifying, a high quality match where each of the players made 2 centuries and multiple 50+ breaks. Maflin was relegated from the tour, however this time he made an immediate return through brand new 2011 Q School tournament, having won all his matches in the Event 3.
Maflin won three matches to reach the final round in qualifying for two of the first five ranking events of the 2012/2013 season. These came in the Wuxi Classic where he lost in a deciding frame to Michael Holt, and the International Championship where he lost 2–6 to Mark Davis.[5] He took advantage of the new flatter qualifying system used in the German Masters, whereby he would only need to win two matches to progress to the main stage in Berlin, by beating Joel Walker and Tom Ford, dropping only a single frame in the process. At the venue Maflin defeated Xiao Guodong 5–4, before losing 3–5 to Holt in the last 16.[6] Maflin had a very good season in the minor-ranking PTC events, with his best results coming at the Gdynia Open and the FFB Open, where was knocked out in the quarter-finals by Jamie Burnett and Rod Lawler respectively.[5] In the latter event Maflin had arguably the best win of his career, by coming back from 0–3 to defeat the in-form Neil Robertson in a televised match. He also reached the last 16 of the Scottish Open (scoring his second maximum break along the way) to help him finish 23rd on the Order of Merit, inside the top 26 who qualified for the Finals.[7] There, Maflin had the best run in a ranking of his career by beating 1997 world champion Ken Doherty 4–2, Lawler and Ben Woollaston both 4–3 to reach the semi-finals.[5] He played Ding Junhui and was outplayed in a 0–4 defeat, only managing to score a total of 52 points in the entire match.[8] Nevertheless, the cheque of £20,000 for reaching the last four was the highest of his career to date.[9] Maflin beat Craig Steadman and Steve Davis to advance to the final round of World Championship Qualifying.[10] He led former world champion Peter Ebdon 8–6 but lost four frames in a row to be denied a place in the World Championship for the first time.[11] He increased his ranking by eight spots during the year to end it world number 64.[12]
2013/2014 season
Following a strong ending to the previous season, Maflin's performances at the start of the new season were largely unremarkable, until he reached the last 16 of the International Championship.[13] Maflin edged out Luca Brecel 6–4 in the qualifying match, then at the venue defeated both Robert Milkins and Mark Williams by 6–2 scorelines. He faced Graeme Dott and made a 71 break at 5–3 and 61–0 down in points, before taking the match into a deciding frame which he lost.[14] Despite a surprising 6–4 loss to amateur Mitchell Travis in the last 64 of the UK Championship, Maflin moved up to 51st in the world rankings at the end of the year. 2014 started well for Maflin, as he reached the last 16 of the German Masters for the second year in a row, having scored a win against world number two Mark Selby in the process; he however was beaten 5–1 by Joe Perry, bizarrely losing the last frame under the three miss rule before a single ball was potted.[15] Nevertheless, this result allowed Maflin to further improve his ranking, entering the top 48 for the first time in his career. An early defeat to Lee Page at the final European Tour event, the Gdynia Open left Maflin 37th on the European Order of Merit, while on the Asian Order of Merit he finished only 59th, thus failing to qualify for the Finals.[16] At the Haikou World Open he defeated Perry and Ali Carter to reach his third last 16 of the season, but lost 5–3 to Mark Joyce.[17] Maflin's season finished with two last 64 defeats at the China Open and the World Championship to Judd Trump and Andrew Higginson respectively; he ended up 34th in the world, an incredible rise of 30 places from his ranking 12 months previously.[13][18]
2014/2015 season
Maflin had a difficult first half of 2014/15 season, with just two last 16 appearances in the minor-ranking Yixing Open and Lisbon Open to his name, while at the major tournaments he couldn't progress beyond the last 64 stage. He continued to struggle into the early months of 2015 as he suffered a string of first round exits.[19] A return to form came for Maflin at the China Open, as he defeated Ali Carter, Mike Dunn, Robin Hull and Shaun Murphy to reach his second career semi-final, where he faced the reigning world champion Mark Selby. Despite making two century breaks, he lost the last three frames to be denied his first ever final by a 6–3 scoreline.[20] Maflin carried his good form into the World Championship qualifiers, as he convincingly beat David Grace 10–5 and Steve Davis 10–1 to once again reach the final round. Maflin fell 6–3 down to Fergal O'Brien after the first session, but won six frames in a row the next day to find himself one frame away from the victory; O'Brien then fought back to 9–9, however Maflin survived the tense decider to win 10–9 and secured his debut at the Crucible.[21] He was drawn to play Selby in the first round and came from 7–3 and 8–4 down to lead Selby 9–8. Maflin had chances to complete a shock win in the next two frames but could not take them as Selby recovered to win 10–9.[22]
Maflin qualified for the 2020 World Snooker Championship, in the first round against David Gilbert in frame 16 he attempted a 147 but the cueball hit the yellow on its spot after he potted the 14th red on so he was not on the black to continue the maximum, he stuck his middle finger at the cueball and was subsequently warned by the referee for the obscene gesture at the start of the next frame, warned that he would be docked a frame if he repeated such a thing. He was not fined for misconduct however. He nevertheless won the match, followed by defeating John Higgins, voted one of the top-10 matches of the season, before falling to Anthony McGill in the quarter-finals.
2020/2021 season
Personal life
Maflin married Anita Rizzuti in May 2013. They live in Oslo with their son Neon. Anita is an amateur snooker player with whom Maflin participated in the 2014 national world cup.[28] Maflin is a Chelsea fan.[29]
Mark King is an English professional snooker player.
Michael Holt is an English professional snooker player from Nottingham. A former world Top 20 player, he won one ranking event – the 2020 Snooker Shoot Out – and two minor-ranking tournaments. He was runner-up at two ranking events – the 2016 Riga Masters and the 2019 Snooker Shoot Out. Holt also reached the semi-finals of the 2013 Shanghai Masters as well as five other quarter-finals.
Barry Hawkins is an English professional snooker player from Ditton, Kent. He turned professional in 1996, but only rose to prominence in the 2004–05 snooker season, when he reached the last 16 of the 2004 UK Championship, the quarter-finals of the 2004 British Open and the semi-finals of the 2005 Welsh Open. He has now spent twelve successive seasons ranked inside the top 32. Hawkins reached his first ranking final and won his first ranking title at the 2012 Australian Goldfields Open.
Mark Anthony Selby is an English professional snooker player. Ranked world number one on multiple occasions, he has won a total of 22 ranking titles, placing him eighth on the all-time list of ranking tournament winners. He is a four-time World Snooker Champion, and has won the Masters three times and the UK Championship twice for a total of nine Triple Crown titles, putting him on a par with John Higgins, and behind only Ronnie O’Sullivan (23), Stephen Hendry (18) and Steve Davis (15).
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Cao Yupeng is a Chinese professional snooker player. He won the 2011 Asian Under-21 Championship, thus qualifying for the professional main tour for the 2011–12 season. In his first season on the circuit, he reached the last 16 of the World Championship.
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The 2015 World Snooker Championship was a professional snooker tournament which took place from 18 April to 4 May 2015 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the 39th consecutive year that the World Snooker Championship had been held at the Crucible, and was the final ranking event of the 2014–15 snooker season. Sports betting company Betfred sponsored the event for the first time in three years, having previously done so from 2009 to 2012. The top sixteen players in the snooker world rankings were placed into the draw, and another sixteen players qualified for the event at a tournament taking place from 8 to 15 April 2015 at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, Sheffield.
The 2019 Riga Masters was a professional ranking snooker tournament held from 26 to 28 July 2019 at the Arēna Rīga in Riga, Latvia. It was the sixth Riga Masters event, with the first being held in 2013, and the first ranking event of the 2019/2020 snooker season. The defending champion, Neil Robertson, previously defeated Jack Lisowski in the 2018 final. However, Robertson and several other players were forced to withdraw from qualifying round matches due to flight cancellations, and therefore could not compete in the event.
The 2019 China Championship was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 23 to 29 September 2019. The event was held at the Guangzhou Tianhe Sports Centre in Guangzhou, China. Qualifying for the event took place from 15 to 18 August 2019 at the Barnsley Metrodome in Barnsley, England. The tournament was the fourth edition of the China Championship and the third ranking event of the 2019/2020 season.
↑ Turner, Chris. "Major Amateur Championships". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 12 May 2012. Retrieved 23 April 2021.
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Norway (2004–present)
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