Sam Craigie (born 29 December 1993) is an English professional snooker player from Newcastle. He enjoyed a successful junior career before turning professional in 2011.

Career

Early career Craigie qualified for the 2011/2012 Main Tour after winning the 2010 IBSF World Under 21 Championships. He defeated his brother Stephen 7–6 in the semi-finals before beating Li Hang 9–8 in the final to secure the title.

2011/2012 season In his debut season on the snooker tour he was unranked and therefore needed to win four qualifying matches to make the main draws of the ranking events. He won two matches in attempts to reach both the Australian Goldfields Open and German Masters respectively and had his best set of results in qualifying for the China Open, where he beat Adam Wicheard, Liu Song and Gerard Greene, before losing to Ricky Walden 3–5 in the final round. Craigie played in 11 of the 12 minor-ranking Players Tour Championship events throughout the season, with his best finish coming in Event 11 where he was defeated by Walden again, this time in the last 16 by 4 frames to 2. Craigie finished his first season ranked outside of the top 64 who automatically retained their places for the 2012/2013 season and therefore dropped off the main tour.

Following years Craigie played in two events in the 2012/2013 season, but could only pick up one frame. He did not enter an event in the following season, but did play in 2015 Q School, coming closest to rejoining the tour in the first event when he was defeated 4–2 by Adam Duffy in the last 32.

2016/2017 season In 2016, Craigie received a two-year tour card for the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 seasons after successfully qualifying through the EBSA Play-Offs in Sheffield, beating Adam Duffy 4–3 in the last round of the event. He qualified for the World Open with a 5–3 victory over 1997 world champion Ken Doherty and won his first match in a main draw of a ranking event by beating Marco Fu 5–3 in the opening round. Craigie was then edged out 5–4 by Matthew Selt. Craigie made a century and two fifty plus breaks to whitewash Jamie Jones 4–0 at the Northern Ireland Open, before John Higgins made a 147, 137 and 130 in a second round 4–1 defeat. Craigie was 3–1 ahead of Mark King at the interval of their first round match at the UK Championship and that quickly became 4–1 when King was docked a frame for forgetting his cue at the resumption of play. Craigie went on to win 6–2, but in the second round lost 6–5 to Luca Brecel after leading 5–3. Shaun Murphy knocked Craigie out of the Shoot-Out and in the second round of the Gibraltar Open.

He dropped off the tour at the end of the 2017/18 season but entered 2018 Q School in an attempt to win back a place. He defeated former crucible semi-finalist Andy Hicks in round 3 of the first event and beat Dechawat Poomjaeng in the final round to secure his return to the tour at the first event.

2018/2019 season In April 2019, he reached the quarter final of a ranking event for the first time at the China Open after beating the likes of Ryan Day, Ali Carter and Liang Wenbo before being whitewashed by Neil Robertson.

2019/2020 season Craigie's best result for the season was reaching the Last 32 of the Riga Masters after beating Long Zehuang and Jamie O'Neil before losing 4–3 to Matthew Selt.

2020/2021 season Craigie qualified for the World Snooker Championship for the first time after beating Ashley Hugill, Hossein Vafaei, and Zhao Xintong in the qualifying rounds. He drew Mark Williams in the first round.

Personal life Craigie's elder brother Stephen is a former professional snooker player.

Performance and rankings timeline

Tournament 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 2024/25 2025/26 2026/27RankingIt shows the ranking at the beginning of the seasonHe was an amateurNew players on the Main Tour don't have a ranking76Players qualified through Q School started the season without ranking points665850445146Players issued an invitational tour card began the season without ranking points70Ranking tournamentsChampionship LeagueNon-Ranking EventRRRRRR3RA2RWDChina OpenALQAALQ2RQFTournament Not HeldLQWuhan OpenTournament Not Held2RWDLQLQBritish OpenTournament Not Held1RLQLQWD1RLQEnglish OpenTournament Not HeldWD1R2R2RWDLQ1RLQWDLQ2RShenzhen OpenThe event was called the Xi'an Grand Prix (2024/2025–2025/2026)Tournament Not HeldWDLQLQNorthern Ireland OpenTournament Not Held2R4R2R1R2R1R1R2RALQInternational ChampionshipNot HeldALQLQ1RLQ1RNot Held1RAWDUK ChampionshipALQAA2R1R1R1R1R3RQFLQALQShoot OutNon-Ranking Event3RA1R1R2RWD2RWDAWDScottish OpenNot HeldMRNH1R2R1R1R3R2R3R2RA1RGerman MastersALQALQLQLQLQLQLQ2R1RSFALQWelsh OpenALQA1R1R3R3R1R2RWD1RLQA3RWorld Grand PrixNot HeldDNQDNQDNQDNQDNQDNQDNQ2RDNQDNQDNQPlayers ChampionshipThe event was called the Players Tour Championship Grand Final (2010/2011–2012/2013 and 2015/2016)DNQDNQDNQDNQDNQDNQDNQDNQDNQDNQDNQDNQDNQDNQWorld OpenALQANH2R1RWD1RNot HeldWDA2RTour ChampionshipTournament Not HeldDNQDNQDNQDNQDNQDNQDNQDNQWorld ChampionshipALQAALQLQLQLQ1RLQLQLQALQNon-ranking tournamentsChampionship LeagueAAAAAAA2RAAARRAAFormer ranking tournamentsAustralian Goldfields OpenNHLQALQTournament Not HeldShanghai MastersALQAALQLQNon-RankingNot HeldNon-Ranking EventPaul Hunter ClassicMinor-Ranking EventA2R1RNRTournament Not HeldIndian OpenTournament Not HeldLQLQ3RTournament Not HeldRiga MastersThe event was called the Riga Open (2015/2016)Not HeldMR1R2RWD2RTournament Not HeldChina ChampionshipTournament Not HeldNRLQ1R1RTournament Not HeldWST Pro SeriesTournament Not Held3RTournament Not HeldTurkish MastersTournament Not Held3RTournament Not HeldGibraltar OpenNot HeldMR2R3RWD2R1RWDTournament Not HeldWST ClassicTournament Not Held1RTournament Not HeldEuropean MastersTournament Not HeldLQLQ1RLQ1RWDLQLQNot HeldSaudi Arabia MastersTournament Not HeldWD4RNH

Performance Table LegendLQ lost in the qualifying draw#R lost in the early rounds of the tournament(WR = Wildcard round, RR = Round robin)QF lost in the quarter-finalsSF lost in the semi–finalsF lost in the finalW won the tournamentDNQ did not qualify for the tournamentA did not participate in the tournamentWD withdrew from the tournament NH / Not Held means an event was not held.NR / Non-Ranking Event means an event is/was no longer a ranking event.R / Ranking Event means an event is/was a ranking event.MR / Minor-Ranking Event means an event is/was a minor-ranking event.PA / Pro-am Event means an event is/was a pro-am event.

Career finals Amateur finals: 1 (1 title) Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final ScoreWinner 1. 2010 IBSF World Under-21 Snooker Championship Li Hang 9–8

References

External links