Rod Lawler (born 12 July 1971) is an English retired professional snooker player. He is noted for his slow playing style which gave rise to his nickname, "Rod the Plod".[1]
Lawler turned professional in 1990. His first season proved to be quite successful as he reached the last 32 in the Dubai Classic, losing out 2–5 to former World Billiards ChampionRex Williams. He then followed this up with a run to the Quarter Finals of the Classic, beating John Virgo 5–3 to qualify, as well as Joe Johnson 5–3 in the second round, before losing 2–5 to Mike Hallett. His best run in a ranking tournament was in 1996, when he reached the final of the International Open, beating World Champion Stephen Hendry 5–3 in the second round, but his run ended in the final where he lost 9–3 to John Higgins.[2]
In 1995, Lawler reached the semi-final of the Malta Masters, beating future UK ChampionMatthew Stevens in the Quarter Final, however he lost in the semi-final to the home favourite Tony Drago. He followed up this result by reaching the last 16 of the Grand Prix, beating the aforementioned Tony Drago in the last 32, before being whitewashed 5–0 by Stephen Hendry.
Lawler has qualified for the final stages of the World Championship on two occasions, the first being in 1995, where he beat a young Marcus Campbell in qualifying, before losing to Peter Ebdon in the last 32 at the Crucible. He qualified again in 1996, beating former World Champion Dennis Taylor in the final qualifying round. At the Crucible he then beat 1991 World Champion John Parrott 10–6, before losing in the last 16 to Dave Harold by 13 frames to 6. This was, to date, his best World Championship performance.
Lawler narrowly missed out on a place in the last 32 in the 2009 China Open, winning three qualifying matches, the last of which was against Matthew Stevens, to reach the venue in Beijing, only to lose 3–5 to local wildcard Yu Delu.[4] In 2010 however, Lawler did reach the last 32 of the China Open, winning three qualifying matches against Matthew Selt, Dominic Dale, and Ricky Walden. Also defeating wildcard Supoj Saenla 5–3, before losing to then number 8 seed Mark Selby
The 2011–12 was a disastrous season for Lawler. He reached the third qualifying round in three ranking events. Apart from that he lost a lot of matches which then proved quite costly at the end of the season as he finished ranked 73, losing his place on the main tour. He then entered the 2012 Q School and reached the semi-finals of Event 3 by beating another former professional Joe Delaney to regain his tour place for the next two seasons.
Following his Gloucester success, he continued to perform well, reaching the final qualifying round of both the UK Championship and Haikou World Open tournaments, with his results enough to move him back inside the top 64 provisionally.
His victory over Fu at the UK PTC along with a semi-final run in the European Tour 2012/2013 – Event 6 meant that he qualified for the PTC Finals ranked 7th on the Order of Merit. At the venue in Galway he beat Cao Yupeng by a 4–2 scoreline, only to lose to Kurt Maflin in the last 16 by 4 frames to 3, having led throughout the match.
At the 2013 World Championship, Lawler beat Scottish Amateur Fraser Patrick 10–5, he then resisted an admirable fightback to beat Anthony McGill 10–9, after being 7–2 and 8–3 up. However, in the final qualifying round, he lost 7–10 to World number 21 Martin Gould, despite being 5–2 up at one point in the match, however, the progression to the final qualifying round netted him £8,200.
Lawler earned £49,050 during the 2012–13 snooker season. He also made 15 century breaks, more than in any previous season.[6]
Lawler qualified for the first ranking tournament of the season, the Wuxi Classic, beating Vinnie Calabrese 5–3. In the first round proper, he faced Shaun Murphy who won the match 5–1. Lawler failed to qualify for both the Shanghai Masters and the Australian Goldfields Open but then reached the semi-finals of the second Euro Tour (PTC) event, eventually losing 3–4 to Mark Allen in a deciding frame. A solid run of results followed, reaching a quarter-final in PTC4 where he eventually lost 3–4 to Robert Milkins, and also reaching the fourth round of the UK Championship where he pulled one back against Mark Allen by beating him 6–4 in the third round, eventually losing 3–6 to Judd Trump. Lawler failed to achieve another deep run in a tournament for the rest of the season, but was consistent in qualifying for the main stages of ranking tournaments, and therefore accumulated enough prize money to finish 39th on the rankings list at the end of the season.
2018/2019 season
In November 2018, after winning his first round match against Anthony Hamilton at the UK Championships, Lawler was criticised for his slow play by World Snooker Chairman Barry Hearn taking an average of 39.8s per shot.[7] Despite this, he reached the quarter final of the Shootout, where players have a limited time (15 seconds for the first five minutes; ten seconds thereafter) to play each shot.
2022/2023 season
Lawler regained his Main Tour Card in May 2022 by qualifying through the first Q School event at Sheffield. The final qualifying round saw him beat Brandon Sargeant 4–3 which earned him a two year card.
Dominic Dale is a Welsh professional snooker player, as well as snooker commentator and presenter for the BBC and Eurosport.
Gerard Eamonn Greene is a Northern Irish former professional snooker player. He represents Northern Ireland in international events, as his parents are from Belfast.
David Morris is an Irish former professional snooker player. In the 2015-2016 he was ranked as Ireland's number 3 player, after Fergal O'Brien and Ken Doherty.
Patrick Wallace is a former professional snooker player from Dungannon in Northern Ireland. During his career, which lasted seventeen years from 1994 to 2011, he won two non-ranking titles and was a quarter-finalist in the 2001 World Championship.
Kurt Graham Maflin 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.
Joe Delaney is an Irish former professional snooker player.
David Gilbert is an English professional snooker player. He is a former World Snooker Young Player of Distinction and practises at Potters Snooker and Pool Club in Swadlincote, Derbyshire, a club which he co-owns.
Jimmy Robertson is an English professional snooker player.
Alfred Burden is an English professional snooker player from London.
Liu Chuang is a Chinese former professional snooker player.
Tian Pengfei is a Chinese professional snooker player. He began his career by playing the Challenge Tour in 2004, at the time the second-level professional tour. Tian played on the Main Tour in 2006 and competed on the World Snooker Tour for two seasons until he dropped off in 2008. He won the Beijing International Challenge, and returned to the Main Tour the following year.
Jamie Jones is a Welsh professional snooker player from Neath. At the age of 14 he was the youngest ever player to make a maximum 147 break in competition, a record that has since been beaten by Judd Trump. At the 2012 World Snooker Championship, Jones reached his first ranking quarter-final. He made his second appearance in the quarter-finals of a Triple Crown tournament at the 2016 UK Championship.
Paul S. Davison is an English former professional snooker player from Pickering, North Yorkshire. First earning a place on the World Snooker Tour in 1992, he played on the tour until 1997, and has since regained his place on the Tour on three further occasions, most recently in the 2018-19 snooker season. Davison reached a peak of 70th in the world snooker rankings in 2012, and the farthest into a ranking tournament at the 2017 Riga Masters. He has made a total of 76 professional century breaks, the highest being a 144 made in qualifying for the 2001 World Snooker Championship.
Warren King is a former professional Australian snooker player who was active during the 1980s and 1990s. He reached his highest ranking position, 35th, for the 1985/1986 season, and was the runner-up in the 1990 Classic, where he lost 6–10 to Steve James.
Daniel Wells is a Welsh professional snooker player from Neath. He has twice come through Qualifying School to play on the professional snooker tour, and turned professional again at the beginning of the 2023–24 season after placing top of the 2022–23 One Year Ranking List for players outside the top 64, despite competing as an amateur for the entire season.
Sam Baird is an English former professional snooker player. He first entered the professional tour for the 2009/10 season, by winning the EBSA Pro-Ticket Tour Play-offs.
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.
Lyu Haotian is a Chinese professional snooker player, notable for being one of the youngest snooker players to have played in professional tournaments, aged only 14. He reached the quarter-finals of the 2012 International Championship when he was aged 14, which is still the record in a ranking event.
Fraser Patrick is a Scottish former professional snooker player from Glasgow.
Oliver Lines is an English professional snooker player who practices at Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds. He is the son of former professional snooker player Peter Lines.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
England 
