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David Gilbert

Gilbert suffered another frustrating season in 2008/09. His ability is not in question, as three venue appearances last season will testify, but in the other five ranking events he suffered first match losses, to drop six places in the rankings to  No 51.
His season started brightly with qualification for the venue stage of the Northern Ireland Trophy. Wins over Liu Chuang and Michael Judge put him through to play John Higgins but the Scot ended his chances with a 5-2 victory. At the Royal London Watches Grand Prix, he saw off Matthew Selt to set up a match with Matthew Stevens. They were tied at 2-2 but runs of a 114, 90 and 97 sealed an impressive win. In the last 32 he was up against Stephen Hendry and gave the snooker legend a real battle before losing 5-4 on the colours.
Two years before the two had met at the Crucible. Gilbert had led 5-1on that occasion before Hendry came through 10-7.
The best run he had took him to the last 16 of the Welsh Open. After beating David Roe he convincingly saw off home favourite Mark Williams 5-1 with runs of 66, 131, 58 and 115. The Tamworth player then accounted for Joe Perry before losing to Mark Selby, but not before achieving his best run at a ranking tournament.
The 2006/07 campaign was the best of Gilbert’s career as he reached the last 32 of two tournaments and finished on a high when he made his debut at the theatre of dreams in Sheffield.
In the Welsh Open he won two qualifying matches then beat James Wattana in Newport before losing to Steve Davis.
The Tamworth player carried his good form into the Betfred.com World Snooker Championship qualifiers, beating Alfie Burden, Gerard Greene and Mark King to reach the Crucible. "I can’t wait to play there," he said. "I was supposed to be working with my dad on a farm for the next six weeks. It was potato planting, 16-18 hours a day. But I’ll give that a miss now because I want to practise hard between now and the Crucible to give it my best shot.”
Despite losing to Hendry, it was an impressive debut from Gilbert - put into perspective when he revealed afterwards that his mum, Joan, had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. Thankfully, she has now made a full recovery.
Gilbert is a former World Snooker Young Player of Distinction.

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