'Hopefully I've not played my last pro game': Peter Lines bidding to qualify for UK Championship and rejoin snooker's top tour

After four decades traveling around the globe, Lines – who turned professional 12 months before the fabled Class of ’92 of Ronnie O’Sullivan, John Higgins and Mark Williams came on the scene – knew defeat to Matthew Selt in Sheffield meant his time on snooker’s main Tour had come to an end.

It was an emotional moment for the Leeds cueman, who had devoted his life to the sport and watched his son Oliver follow him into the professional ranks.

Now, after a tough ‘lonely’ first year back as an amateur, the 55-year-old is looking to regain his spot on the main Tour. If successful, he would be the third oldest professional player, after Jimmy White and Ken Doherty.

Former World Seniors and UK Seniors champion Lines currently sits top of the Q Tour amateur rankings after four events – he won a tournament in Vienna in September – with the overall winner guaranteed a two-year Tour card.

That victory in Vienna offered a ‘bonus’ for Lines, a place in the qualifying rounds of the Victorian Plumbing UK Champtionship

Today he plays a first-round qualifier against Reanne Evans, one of 128 players chasing 16 spots on offer to travel to the York Barbican next weekend.

“It’s a nice little bonus,” Lines told The Yorkshire Post. “I haven’t played a pro game now for over two years.

“I lost in the World Championship (qualifiers) to Matt Selt. With Matt being a really good friend, it was nice, but also a bit sad that it was the end.

“Once you get to my age, you think that might be my last pro game. I hope it’s not, but you never know.

“I got a bit emotional in the round before, I was losing 5-4 after the first session. I did get a bit emotional thinking that might be my last ever game. I wanted to carry on.

“Last year I didn’t really enjoy it, and I have always enjoyed playing snooker. We had a few family problems, I don’t really like to talk about them because I don’t want to be one of these people who make excuses.

“My heart just wasn’t in it, and that’s never been the case before. I love playing snooker, I still do.

“I just thought, if I am going to play, I want to play properly and to a level that I know I can play to. Otherwise, what’s the point?

“I am doing quite a bit of coaching these days, but to be honest I have been practicing a little bit more since the start of the season,” said Lines, who is based at Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds.

“I didn’t play much last season – for one reason and another – and decided to give it a go and see if I could get back on (Tour). I have been playing a bit more, obviously if you play better you win more.

“I played pretty good on all the Q Tour events.

“I lost to Hammad Miah in the semi-finals (in Sweden) – he won it – then lost to Jamie Clarke in the quarter-finals, and he won in Leeds. I have won one myself, so I am still top (of the rankings) with three events to go.

“It’s on a ranking basis, you get points for every match you win, and whoever is top after the seven events, gets their pro card. The next 16 go into the play-offs for three more pro cards. Because I have won one, I am guaranteed to be in the play-offs. I want to finish No 1.”

Lines admits his last two years on the main Tour were a “total nightmare”.

He was charged and later fined for his part in a cheating row with fellow professional Xiao Guodong at the 2021 Northern Ireland Open.

A proud family man, it cast a cloud over Lines’ exit, which only fuels his desire to return to the professional circuit.

He said: “When I was on the Tour, the last two years of my Tour card, I wanted to really enjoy it in case it was my last two years.

“I ruined it with the Guodong incident. I didn’t enjoy it at all. Some of it was my fault, I would definitely say some of it wasn’t my fault.

“I wanted to enjoy those two years, but it was a total nightmare. Probably the worst two years I have ever had on the Tour. I didn’t really want it to finish like that. That’s why I am trying to give it a go again."

Lines is first up this morning against Evans – one of the best female players over the last two decades, with 12 world titles on her CV – at Robin Park in Wigan.

“Playing in these conditions, I haven’t played in them for a couple of years, but I am looking forward to it,” he said.

“I have got no expectations. I am not going to say ‘I would really love to qualify for York’. I am going try as hard as I can to beat Reanne, and then take it from there.”

Evans has been a trailblazer for women in the sport, and China’s Bai Yulu – the current Women’s World Champion – is one of the most exciting female players to emerge in snooker.

As a coach, Lines would like to see more girls picking up a cue, but believes it could take someone like Bai to inspire a new generation of women snooker players.

“The women’s Tour does seem to be getting a little bit busier, better, but it’s just a numbers game,” he said. “For some reason they are not coming to play.

“I have not seen it, and we are certainly not seeing it in the club.

“The Chinese player (Bai Yulu) looks really good and could take the women’s game to the next level. Maybe that’s what it needs, a woman to really start doing well in the men’s game to inspire others to start playing.”

Lines would need to win four matches in Wigan to qualify for the Barbican, and is joined in the first round by fellow Leeds professional David Grace, plus York duo Liam Pullen and Ashley Hugill.

The latter faces China’s Gao Yang this morning, Pullen plays Leicester’s Kaylan Patel this afternoon, before Grace tackles Brazil’s Igor Figueiredo tonight.

Entering in the second round phase, are Lines’ son Oliver, Leeds’ Sanderson Lam and Halifax teenager Stan Moody.

Oliver, 30, has enjoyed a fine start to the season, reaching the last 16 of the Saudi Arabia Masters, last 32 of the British Open and last 16 of the Xi’an Grand Prix in China.

“He has played some really good stuff. I really hope he can have a good run,” said proud dad Lines.

“He has had some good wins, he beat Judd (Trump), Mark Allen, and should have probably beat Kyren Wilson in Northern Ireland. It’s nice to see him playing well.

“He’s enjoying what he is doing, and that’s reflected in his game.”

Both will be hoping there are two Lines back on track on the professional circuit next season.