Neal Foulds

Neal Foulds

Foulds as commentator at the 2015 German Masters
Born	13 July 1963
Sport country	England
Professional	1983–2004
Highest ranking	3 (1987/1988, 1988/1989)
Career winnings	£1,156,213[1]
Highest break	142 (1992 Matchroom League)
Century breaks	86[2]
Tournament wins
Ranking	1
Non-ranking	5

Neal Foulds (born 13 July 1963) is a former English professional snooker player and is now a commentator on the sport.

Career

Foulds began playing snooker at the age of 11 and by the early 1980s was already one of the strongest players in his area. Following victory in the national under-19′s Championship, Foulds then turned professional in 1983 and at the end of the season qualified for final stages of the World Championship at the first attempt. Even more impressively however, he then defeated twice-champion Alex Higgins 10-9 in the first round before going down 13-9 to Doug Mountjoy in the last 16, a run that saw him enter the rankings at number 30.

Foulds quickly climbed the rankings in the seasons that followed reaching no. 3 within four years. He won his first ranking tournament in 1986, the BCE International, beating Cliff Thorburn 12–9 in the final. In the same season he was runner-up to Steve Davis in the UK Championship, and he also reached the semi-finals of the 1987 World Championship, losing 16–9 to Joe Johnson.^[3] Starting the following season up in a career high position of number three, 1987/88 was not to be quite as successful, though another strong run to the quarter-finals in the 1988 World Snooker Championship before losing to Terry Griffiths ensured that he would retain his spot at third in the rankings

From here however he started to struggle, dropping 17 places to 20th in the rankings and finding himself having to qualify for events in the following season. Still, 1989/90 was to see a revival and despite a round one exit at the World Championship to Wayne Jones, he did enough to regain a place in the top 16 before moving up to number seven at the end of 1990/1.

Though he was able to maintain a top 16 place until the end of the 1993/4 season, and a place on the tour until 2004, from the mid-90′s Foulds struggled for form and eventually retired from the sport in 2004.

Foulds made 76 competitive century breaks in his career.

Commentary career

Foulds and Jimmy White in an interview with Shaun Murphy after his victory against Mark Allen

Since his retirement, Foulds has moved up to the commentary box for the BBC, Eurosport, Sky Sports and he also co-hosts all ITV4 tournament coverage, interviewing players as well as commentating. Foulds also works for Ladbrokes, providing in-shop commentary on racing. In 2014, Foulds made a cameo as himself commentating on a fictional match at the climax of the snooker short film drama 'Extended Rest'. ^[4]

Performance and rankings timeline

Tournament	1983/ 84	1984/ 85	1985/ 86	1986/ 87	1987/ 88	1988/ 89	1989/ 90	1990/ 91	1991/ 92	1992/ 93	1993/ 94	1994/ 95	1995/ 96	1996/ 97	1997/ 98	1998/ 99	1999/ 00	2000/ 01	2001/ 02	2002/ 03	2003/ 04
Ranking[nb 1]	UR[nb 2]	30	23	13	3	3	20	13	6	4	14	25	28	21	30	34	40	73	71	78	114
Ranking tournaments
Australian Goldfields Open[nb 3]	Non-Ranking					NH	QF	Not held				NR	NR	Not held
UK Championship	1R	LQ	2R	F	LQ	1R	1R	2R	QF	1R	1R	1R	2R	1R	4R	1R	2R	5R	LQ	LQ	A
German Masters[nb 4]	Not held												LQ	LQ	LQ	NR	Not held
Welsh Open	Not held								3R	3R	1R	2R	2R	1R	2R	1R	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	A
World Grand Prix[nb 5]	LQ	SF	2R	SF	1R	3R	2R	QF	3R	QF	3R	1R	2R	2R	1R	LQ	1R	LQ	LQ	LQ	A
China Open[nb 6]	Not held														NR	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	Not held
World Championship	2R	1R	1R	SF	QF	1R	QF	2R	2R	QF	2R	LQ	1R	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	A
Non-ranking tournaments
Masters	A	A	A	1R	1R	SF	A	QF	SF	1R	SF	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A
Former ranking tournaments
Canadian Masters	NH		Non-Ranking			1R	Not Held
Classic	LQ	LQ	QF	1R	2R	2R	1R	SF	2R	Not held
Dubai Classic[nb 7]	Not Held					NR	A	3R	3R	1R	1R	LQ	LQ	1R	Not Held
Thailand Masters[nb 8]	Not held	Non-ranking			Not held		2R	QF	2R	1R	2R	LQ	1R	1R	1R	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	NR	NH
Scottish Open[nb 9]	A	1R	SF	W	2R	2R	3R	Not held		1R	QF	2R	3R	1R	2R	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	A
British Open[nb 10]	NR	2R	2R	F	3R	3R	QF	2R	3R	1R	1R	3R	2R	1R	QF	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	A
Irish Masters	Non-ranking event																			LQ	A
Malta Cup[nb 11]	Not held					1R	QF	QF	3R	1R	1R	1R	1R	LQ	NH	LQ	Not held		LQ	LQ	A
Former non-ranking tournaments
World Matchplay	Not Held					A	A	1R	1R	A	Not Held
Scottish Masters	A	A	A	A	QF	NH	A	A	QF	W	QF	A	LQ	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	Not held
Irish Masters	A	A	A	A	F	QF	A	A	1R	1R	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	Ranking event

Performance Table Legend
LQ	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-finals
SF	lost in the semi–finals	F	lost in the final	W	won the tournament
DNQ	did not qualify for the tournament	A	did not participate in the tournament	WD	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.

Tournament finals

Ranking finals: 3 (1 title, 2 runners-up)

Legend

World Championship (0–0)

UK Championship (0–1)

Other (1–1)

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score
Winner	1.	1986	International Open	Cliff Thorburn	12–9
Runner-up	1.	1986	UK Championship	Steve Davis	7–16
Runner-up	2.	1987	British Open	Jimmy White	9–13

Non-ranking finals: 10 (4 titles, 6 runners-up)

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score
Runner-up	1.	1986	English Professional Championship	Tony Meo	7–9
Winner	1.	1987	Pontins Professional	Willie Thorne	9–8
Runner-up	2.	1988	English Professional Championship	Dean Reynolds	5–9
Runner-up	3.	1988	Irish Masters	Steve Davis	4–9
Runner-up	4.	1988	Hong Kong Masters	Jimmy White	3–6
Winner	2.	1988	Dubai Masters	Steve Davis	5–4
Winner	3.	1991	Pontins Professional	Mike Hallett	9–6
Runner-up	5.	1991	Humo Masters	Mike Hallett	7–9
Runner-up	6.	1992	Pontins Professional	Steve James	8–9
Winner	4.	1992	Scottish Masters	Gary Wilkinson	10–8

Team finals: 2 (2 titles)

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Team/partner	Opponent(s) in the final	Score
Winner	1.	1988	World Cup (1)	England	Australia	9–7
Winner	2.	1989	World Cup (2)	England	Rest of the World	9–8

References

1. http://cuetracker.net/Players/Neal-Foulds/Career-Total-Statistics
2. http://cuetracker.net/Players/Neal-Foulds/Career-Total-Statistics
3. "Clive Everton's Crucible History – 1987 World Championship". BBC. 2001. Retrieved 2008-04-03.
4. Then and Now: Neal Foulds - Yahoo! Eurosport

Notes

1. From the 2010/2011 season it shows the ranking at the beginning of the season.
2. New players on the Main Tour do not have a ranking.
3. The event ran under different names as Australian Masters (1979/1980 to 1987/1988 and 1995/1996), Hong Kong Open (1989/1990) and Australian Open (1994/1995).
4. The event ran under different name as German Open (1995/1996 to 1997/1998).
5. The event ran under different name as Professional Players Tournament (1983/1984), Grand Prix (1984/1985 to 2000/2001) and LG Cup (2001/2002 to 2003/2004).
6. The event ran under different names as China International (1997/1998 and 1998/1999)
7. The event run under different names as Dubai Masters (1988/1989), Thailand Classic (1995/1996) and Asian Classic (1996/1997)
8. The event ran under different names such as Asian Open (1989/1990 to 1992/1993) and Thailand Open (1993/1994 to 1996/1997).
9. The event ran under different names such as International Open (1983/1984 to 1984/1985, 1986/1987 to 1996/1997), Goya Matchroom Trophy (1985/1986) and Players Championship (2003/2004).
10. The event was known as International Masters (1983/1984).
11. The event ran under different names such as European Open (1988/1989 to 1996/1997 and 2001/2002 to 2003/2004) and Irish Open (1998/1999).

External links

• Neal Foulds at CueTracker.net: Snooker Results and Statistic Database