User:Montgomery15/sandbox/Gary Hardiman

Gary Hardiman
Gary Hardiman (born 14 October 1975) is an Irish former professional snooker player.

Career
Born in 1975, Hardiman first played competitive snooker in 1997, losing 2–5 to Charlie Economou of Cyprus in that year's Benson & Hedges Championship. At the 1998 World Championship, he defeated Weland Holroyd 5–2 and Ian Preece 5–1, but lost in the third qualifying round 3–5 to James McBain.

After five years away from the competitive game, Hardiman entered the 2003 World Championship, beating eight opponents, including Craig Steadman, Luke Simmonds and Joe Delaney, before losing his sixth-round qualifying match 4–10 to Ricky Walden. His efforts here were enough to secure him a place on the professional main tour for the 2003/2004 season.

Hardiman's first season as a professional brought little success, with only three wins from twelve matches played. He overcame Terry Murphy in the last 96 at the 2004 European Open, but lost his next match 1–5 to Mike Dunn. At the 2004 World Championship, he beat Billy Snaddon 10–6 and Kwan Poomjang 10–7, but lost at the last-80 stage, 4–10 to Shokat Ali. Hardiman finished the season ranked 108th, and was immediately relegated from the tour.

His efforts to re-qualify as a professional in the following several seasons, via the Challenge Tour and the Pontin's International Open Series, came to nothing. Most notably, his first match in the 2005 Irish Professional Championship was against the two-time World Champion Alex Higgins, who by this time was aged 56 and playing his first match in eight years. Higgins took two frames, but Hardiman prevailed 5–2; however, he lost in the next round, 4–5 to Delaney.