Mike Hallett

Career

Hallett was a consistently solid snooker player, but never reached the very top ranks. After winning the national under-16 title in 1975, his world ranking peaked at number six in 1989–90, after his only ranking tournament victory at the 1989 Hong Kong Open in which he beat Dene O'Kane 9–8.

In a semi-final match against John Parrott in the 1988 Benson & Hedges Masters, he recovered from needing four snookers to win the decider 6–5. However, he lost 9–0 to Steve Davis in the final.

In 1991 he reached the Masters Final again at Wembley where, in the best-of-17-frame match, he surged to a 7–0 lead over Stephen Hendry and missed a pink which would have put him 8–0 ahead. He then moved into an 8–2 lead and needed just the pink and black to clear for the match in the eleventh frame, but missed with the rest. Hendry took that frame and managed to spring a comeback to win the match 9–8. To make matters worse, Hallett returned home to find that his house had been burgled. Hallett would go on to win two invitational World Series of Snooker events later in the year, but did not win another professional title after 1991.

Hallett did reach the quarter-finals of the World Championship twice, but never progressed further than that. His final season on the main tour was in 2004–05, but went on to play in the Pontin's International Open Series. During his career he won approximately £920,000. In 2017 he entered the Q school with the aim to resume his pro career on the main tour once again.

Hallett has been commentating on Premier League Snooker for Sky Sports, and all major snooker events on Eurosport. At the start of the 2011/12 season Hallett entered the Players Tour Championship and after winning his first two matches against Duane Jones 4-3 and Elliot Slessor also 4-3, he played Ronnie O'Sullivan and managed to take two frames in losing 4-2.