Career
Lines turned professional in 1991, and in his debut season reached the last 32 stage twice, at the 1992 Strachan Open and the 1992 Asian Open. He had few wins in the next few seasons, although he qualified for the 1995 International Open, beating players including Fergal O'Brien and Doug Mountjoy in the process. Lines briefly fell off tour in 1997 but returned immediately via Qualifying School, and his results started to improve. The 1997/98 season saw him reach the last 32 of the Welsh Open and Scottish Open before coming through qualifying for the World Championship to reach The Crucible for the first (and to date only) time in his career; there he was beaten 10–4 by John Parrott, but not before compiling a 141 total clearance - the highest break by a debutant. As a result, he finished the season ranked 53, and rose to 42 after the next season, despite having failed to reach another last 32.
Lines scored his best ever result at the 1999 China International as he defeated John Higgins and Peter Ebdon en route to his first career quarter-final, where he lost 4–5 to Brian Morgan. Following this result, however, he started to struggle for form and to slip down the rankings, before an eventual relegation from the tour in 2004. He briefly regained his place in 2006 but was again relegated after another poor season.
After working with coach Steve Prest, Lines had a successful 2007–08 season in the Pontins International Open Series. He won one event and reached the final of another to finish second in the top 8, thus qualifying for the main tour. He carried his good form into the 2008–09 season, finishing in the top 64 to retain his tour place. During the next season, he reached the last 64 of the Shanghai Masters and the last 48 of the Grand Prix, before a strong run in the UK Championship. He defeated Xiao Guodong, Ian McCulloch and Nigel Bond to qualify for the venue stages; there he beat Marco Fu 9–3, before causing an upset by edging out Mark Williams 9–8 to reach his second career quarter-final. Despite the 5–9 loss to Stephen Maguire, this performance could have allowed Lines to return to the top 48 of the world rankings, but another drop in form resulted in three opening round defeats in the remaining tournaments of the season to leave him ranked 50.
The 2010–11 season saw Lines record a number of good results in the newly introduced minor-ranking PTC events, with three last 16 appearances and a quarter-final at Event 5. However, his performances in the major tournaments were less successful; aside from a last 48 appearance in the UK Championship, he won only one more match. As a result, he could not improve his ranking at the end of the season. Lines qualified for the 2011 UK Championship by defeating Ken Doherty 6–5 in round 4 of qualifying. He played Martin Gould in the last 32 and was beaten 6–2. He qualified for the 2013 German Masters by defeating John Higgins 5–3 in round 4 of qualifying. He played Ken Doherty in the last 32 and won 5–3, before losing 3–5 to Marco Fu in the last 16. In June 2014 he won the Pink Ribbon pro–am event, defeating Lee Walker 4–1 in the final. [1] Lines beat defending champion Neil Robertson on a run to the last 32 of the 2016 UK Championship. In March 2017 he won the World Seniors Championship, defeating John Parrott 4–0 in the final.
He regained full professional status for the 2017–18 season by coming through an EBSA playoff, where he defeated Zack Richardson 4–0 in the final round. He reached the last 16 on two occasions during the 2017/18 campaign, at the 2017 Paul Hunter Classic and the 2017 European Masters. During the 2019-2020 season, Lines reached the last 16 of the 2020 Snooker Shoot Out. He is known for having a 4-3 (excluding the Shoot-Out) winning head-to-head record against 4-time world champion John Higgins.
While playing Xiao Guodong at the 2021 Northern Ireland Open qualifiers in Leicester, Lines became angry over what he regarded as the incorrect replacement of balls after referee Brendan Moore called a foul and a miss against Xiao. [2] Lines confronted his opponent in the players' lounge after the match, accused him of cheating, swore at him, and challenged him to a fight, which led to security personnel removing Lines from the area. [3] A WPBSA disciplinary committee fined him £2,500 over the incident and ordered him to pay costs of £5,464.80 for breaching conduct rules and bringing the game into disrepute. [4] [5]
In January 2022, Lines won the UK Seniors Championship, defeating David Lilley 4–1 in the final. [6] He finished the 2022–23 season ranked 73rd in the world rankings and was relegated from the professional tour. [7]
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