Rod Lawler

Rod Lawler

Lawler at the 2014 German Masters
Born (1971-07-12) 12 July 1971
Liverpool
Sport country  England
Nickname Rod the Plod
Professional 1990–
Highest ranking 20 (1996/1997)
Current ranking 47 (as of 2 May 2016)
Career winnings £618,086[1]
Highest break 143 (2003 World Championship Qualifying)[2]
Century breaks 100[3]
Best ranking finish Runner-up (1996 International Open)
Tournament wins
Minor-ranking 1
Non-ranking 1

Rod Lawler (born 12 July 1971 in Liverpool, England) is an English professional snooker player. He is noted for his slow playing style, which gave rise to his nickname, "Rod the Plod".[4]

Since turning professional in 1990, Lawler has reached one ranking tournament final - the 1996 International Open, where he lost 3–9 to John Higgins - and won one minor-ranking tournament, Event 3 of the 2012/2013 Players Tour Championship, where he defeated Marco Fu 4–2 in the final.

Lawler has compiled 100 competitive century breaks during his career, including his highest, a 143, in qualifying for the 2003 World Championship.

Career

Early career

He 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 Champion Rex 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.[5]

He also reached the final of the 1994 Benson and Hedges Championship, losing 5–9 to Mark Williams in the Final.

In 1995, Lawler reached the semi-final of the Malta Masters, beating future UK Champion Matthew 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.

In 1997, Lawler reached the semi-final of the Benson and Hedges Championship, losing a final frame decider against Andy Hicks.

His best result in the UK Championship came in 1998, where he beat Jamie Burnett and John Read, before losing to Matthew Stevens in the last 16.[6]

Lawler also reached the Quarter Finals of the 2003 Welsh Open, beating players such as Stephen Maguire, Jimmy White and Michael Holt before losing 2–5 to seven time World Champion Stephen Hendry

Recent years

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.[7] 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 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.

Lawler had a great start to the 2012/13 season as he won all four matches to qualify for the Wuxi Classic. At the venue he defeated Li Hang and Stephen Maguire to reach the last 16 where he was narrowly beaten 4–5 by Graeme Dott. In September he won his first professional title at the UK PTC 3 event defeating Marco Fu 4–2 in the final[8] in Gloucester, Beating the likes of Stuart Bingham, Stephen Lee and Dominic Dale en route to the final.

Following his Gloucester success, Rod 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 2012/2013 snooker season. He also made 15 century breaks, more than in any previous season.[9]

2013/2014 season

Rod Lawler at 2014 German Masters

At the Start of the 2013/2014, Lawler was ranked 59th in the World rankings. In the qualifiers for the 2013 Wuxi Classic, Lawler lost his qualifying match 2–5 against Chinese youngster Lyu Haotian. In the qualifiers for the Australian Goldfields Open, Lawler lost his opening match in the last 96 to Scotsman Ross Muir 1–5. Lawler lost his opening game in the Shanghai Masters 1–5 to Mohamed Khairy. Lawler ended this run of bad results to beat Jak Jones 4–0 to qualify for the inaugural Indian Open. He defeated Indian wildcard Kamal Chalwa 4–1, before receiving a bye to the last 32, due to the withdrawal of Ali Carter, however, he was defeated 2–4 by Neil Robertson. He followed this up with a run to the last 16 of the third European Tour event, beating James Cahill, Liam Highfield and John Higgins before losing to Mark Allen 2–4. Lawler also qualified for the International Championship, beating Ian Burns 6–4 in qualifying, he then beat Aditya Mehta 6–4, before losing 4–6 to Fergal O'Brien in the last 32. Lawler lost in the last 64 of the UK Championship, having defeated Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon 6–3, before losing 1–6 to John Higgins, he also qualified for the German Masters, defeating Mitchell Travis 5–1 in qualifying. He also managed to qualifying for the World Open, this time defeating Elliot Slessor, also by a 5–1 scoreline.

2014/2015 season

Rod qualified for the first ranking tournament of the season, the Wuxi Classic, beating Vinnie Calabrese 5-3. He faced Shaun Murphy in the first round proper and was defeated 5-1. Rod failed to qualify for both the Shanghai Masters and the Australian Goldfields Open but then reached the a semi-final in the second Euro Tour (PTC) event, eventually losing 4-3 to Mark Allen in a deciding frame. A solid run of results followed, reaching a quarter-final in PTC4 where he eventually lost 4-3 to Robert Milkins, and also reaching the fourth round in the UK Championship where he got his revenge on Mark Allen by beating him 6-4 in the third round, eventually losing 6-3 to Judd Trump. Rod failed to achieve another deep run in a tournament in the rest of the season, but was consistent in the 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.

Performance and rankings timeline

Tournament 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		 2004/
05		 2005/
06		 2006/
07		 2007/
08		 2008/
09		 2009/
10		 2010/
11		 2011/
12		 2012/
13		 2013/
14		 2014/
15		 2015/
16		 2016/
17
Ranking[10][nb 1] UR[nb 2] 54 45 45 45 40 20 26 40 51 51 64 66 53 57 60 46 49 60 61 49 58 73[nb 3] 59 39 39 47
Ranking tournaments
Australian Goldfields Open[nb 4] Not held NR Not held LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ
Shanghai Masters Not Held LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ
International Championship Not Held LQ 2R 3R 1R
UK Championship 1R 2R LQ 1R 1R LQ 2R 2R 3R 2R 5R LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ 2R LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ 2R 4R 1R
German Masters[nb 5] Not Held QF LQ LQ NR Not Held LQ LQ LQ SF LQ LQ
Welsh Open NH 1R LQ LQ LQ 1R 1R 2R LQ 1R LQ 1R QF LQ 2R LQ 1R 1R LQ LQ 1R LQ LQ 1R 2R 2R
World Grand Prix[nb 6] 1R LQ 1R LQ 3R 1R 1R 2R 2R 2R LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R 1R LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R NR DNQ
Players Championship Grand Final[nb 7] Not Held DNQ DNQ 2R DNQ 1R DNQ
China Open[nb 8] Not Held NR LQ LQ LQ LQ Not Held LQ LQ LQ LQ WR 1R LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ 3R
World Championship LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R 2R LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ
Non-ranking tournaments
The Masters LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ A LQ A LQ LQ A A A A A A A
World Seniors Championship NH A Not Held A A A A LQ LQ
World Grand Prix Not Held 1R R
Variant format tournaments
Snooker Shoot-Out[nb 9] 2R Not Held 2R 1R 1R 1R 3R QF
Former ranking tournaments
Classic QF 2R Not Held
Strachan Open[nb 10] NH LQ MR NR Not Held
Dubai Classic[nb 11] 2R 2R 3R LQ LQ LQ 2R Not Held
Malta Grand Prix Not Held Non-ranking 1R NR Not Held
Thailand Masters[nb 12] LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ NR Not Held NR Not Held
Scottish Open[nb 13] Not Held LQ 1R 1R F 1R 2R 1R 3R LQ LQ LQ 2R Not Held MR Not Held
British Open LQ LQ LQ 2R LQ 1R WD 4R LQ 2R LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ Not Held
Irish Masters Non-Ranking Event 1R LQ LQ NH NR Not Held
Malta Cup[nb 14] 1R 1R 2R LQ LQ LQ 1R NH LQ Not Held LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R NR Not Held
Northern Ireland Trophy Not Held NR 1R 1R LQ Not Held
Bahrain Championship Not Held 1R Not Held
Wuxi Classic[nb 15] Not held Non-ranking 2R LQ 1R NH
Indian Open Not Held 2R 2R NH
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
DQ disqualified from the tournament
NH / Not Held event was not held.
NR / Non-Ranking Event event is/was no longer a ranking event.
R / Ranking Event event is/was a ranking event.
MR / Minor-Ranking Event event is/was a minor-ranking event.
  1. ↑ From the 2010/2011 season it shows the ranking at the beginning of the season.
  2. ↑ New players on the Main Tour don't have a ranking.
  3. ↑ Players qualified through Q School started the season without ranking points.
  4. ↑ The event run under different names as Australian Open (1994/1995) and Australian Masters (1995/1996)
  5. ↑ The event run under different name as German Open (1995/1996–1997/1998)
  6. ↑ The event run under different names as Grand Prix (1990/1991–2000/2001 and 2004/2005–2009/2010) and LG Cup (2001/2002–2003/2004)
  7. ↑ The event run under different name as Players Tour Championship Grand Finals (2010/2011–2012/2013)
  8. ↑ The event run under different name as China International (1997/1998–1998/1999)
  9. ↑ The event run under different name as Shoot-Out (1990/1991)
  10. ↑ The event run under different name as Strachan Challenge (1992/1993–1993/1994)
  11. ↑ The event run under different names as Thailand Classic (1995/1996) and Asian Classic (1996/1997)
  12. ↑ The event run under different names as Asian Open (1990/1991–1992/1993) and Thailand Open (1993/1994–1996/97)
  13. ↑ The event run under different names as International Open (1992/1993–1996/1997) and Players Championship (2003/2004)
  14. ↑ The event run under different names as European Open (1990/1991–1996/1997 and 2001/2002–2003/2004) and Irish Open (1998/1999)
  15. ↑ The event run under different name as Jiangsu Classic (2008/2009–2009/2010)

Career finals

Ranking event finals: 1 (1 runner-up)

Legend
World Championship (0–0)
UK Championship (0–0)
Other (0–1)
Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final Score
Runner-up 1. 1996 International Open Scotland Higgins, JohnJohn Higgins 3–9

Minor-ranking event finals: 1 (1 title)

Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final Score
Winner 1. 2012 Players Tour Championship – Event 3 Hong Kong Fu, MarcoMarco Fu 4–2

Non-ranking event finals: 3 (1 title, 2 runners-up)

Legend
Masters (0–0)
Premier League (0–0)
Other (1–2)
Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final Score
Runner-up 1. 1994 Benson & Hedges Championship Wales Williams, MarkMark Williams 5–9
Winner 1. 1995/96 Merseyside Professional Championship England Reynolds, DeanDean Reynolds 5–4[11]
Runner-up 2. 2000/01 Merseyside Professional Championship England Holt, MichaelMichael Holt 3–5[11]

Pro-am wins

References

  1. ↑ "Career-total Statistics for Rod Lawler - Professional". CueTracker Snooker Results & Statistics Database. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
  2. ↑ "2003 World Championship - Centuries". CueTracker Snooker Results & Statistics Database. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  3. ↑ "Centuries". Pro Snooker Blog. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  4. ↑ "Rod the Plod downs Dale". Global Snooker. Retrieved 6 February 2010.
  5. ↑ "Sweater Shop International Open". Snooker.org. Retrieved 15 February 2008.
  6. ↑ "Rod Lawler – Season 1998/1999". CueTracker – Snooker Database. Retrieved 22 March 2013.
  7. ↑ "Rod Lawler – Season 2008/2009". CueTracker – Snooker Database. Retrieved 22 March 2013.
  8. ↑ "Lawler Wins First Pro Title". worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. 9 September 2012. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
  9. ↑ "Rod Lawler - Season 2013/2014". CueTracker – Snooker Database. Retrieved 21 August 2013.
  10. ↑ "Ranking History". Snooker.org. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  11. 1 2 Turner, Chris. "Merseyside Professional Championship". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Retrieved 20 September 2014.

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