Nigel Bond Player Profile
Nigel Bond Stats
Date of birth: 15 November, 1965
Nationality: England
First turned professional: 1989
Highest ranking: 5
Ranking titles: 1
Triple Crown titles: 0
Crucible best: runner-up
Masters appearances: 7
147 breaks: 0
SHQ Stars:
★★★★
Summary
Nigel Bond beat Barry Pinches to win the English Amateur Championship in 1989 and turned professional shortly after.
By the end of his third season on the main tour, he was already ranked inside the world’s top ten.
For a handful of years, the player known as 00-147 was regarded as among the best of the rest – not quite at the level of the sport’s biggest stars but a consistent presence nonetheless.
Bond reached his first ranking final in only his second season on the pro circuit, losing to Stephen Hendry in the Grand Prix title decider of 1990.
It was the same formidable opponent who prevented Bond from becoming world champion in 1995, losing 18-9 to Hendry in that year’s Crucible final.
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Two further disappointments in ranking event finals followed in 1995 and 1997 – both in Thailand – but in between those came Bond’s greatest career moment.
At the 1996 British Open, he beat Hendry en route to the final where he upset another Scot, John Higgins, in a deciding-frame thriller to secure his one and only ranking trophy.
These performances helped Bond reach a career-high ranking of number five in the world, and it was around this time when he also captured notable invitational titles at the Malta Grand Prix and the Scottish Masters.
Soon after, however, his form began to decline and by the turn of the century he had slipped outside the world’s top 16.
Bond continued to a compete strongly on the main tour, but his time contesting the latter rounds of competitions were largely over.
That was, of course, until the inaugural Snooker Shoot Out in 2011, where Bond beat the clock to go all the way to glory in what was then a non-ranking tournament.
After losing his tour card in 2022 at the age of 56, Bond called time on a creditable 33-year career in snooker’s top flight.
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Ranking Event Victories
- 1996 British Open
Other Notable Victories
- Snooker Shoot Out (2011)
- Scottish Masters (1997)
- Malta Grand Prix (1996)
- King’s Cup (1992)
- World Games (2009)
- World Seniors Championship (2012)
Featured photo credit: WST
Nigel Bond Player Profile
SHQ Stars: How it works
| Rating | SHQ Stars | Career Requirements |
|---|---|---|
| Black | ★★★★★★★ | multiple world champion; 30+ ranking titles; career triple crown; world no.1 (at least 3) |
| Pink | ★★★★★★ | world champion; 10+ ranking titles; multiple winner of triple crown events; member of top 2; 15+ seasons in top 16 (at least 3) |
| Blue | ★★★★★ | winner of triple crown event; 5+ ranking titles; member of top 4; 12+ seasons in top 16 (at least 2) |
| Brown | ★★★★ | 2+ ranking titles; member of top 8; triple crown event finalist; 8+ seasons in the top 16 (at least 2) |
| Green | ★★★ | ranking title; member of top 16 (at least 1) |
| Yellow | ★★ | member of top 64 |
| Red | ★ | professional |
