Focus on small Snooker-countries - Part 2: Finland, Norway, Iceland

Part 2 of my little series, focusing the smaller snooker nations. 

If you missed the first episode about players of Germany, you can find it here. This time I focus on northern europe countries (scandinavian would'nt be right in this context afaik)

So here we go:

Finland

Talking of Finnish snooker players, the first one that should come in mind is Robin Hull. Although born and raised in England he played for Finland and can be considered as an "extended world elite" player.

He reached the quarter finals of two ranking events (Welsh Open 2003, Malta Cup 2006), played more than 130 professional centuries and played at the crucible theatre in 2002, losing his first round to Graeme Dott 6:10 (highest break in that match for him: 91). His best world ranking was a #32 in 2003/04. He is multiple national champion and EBSA European champion of 1997 as well.

In the 2007/08 season he was unable to compete, because of a serious virus infection affecting his heart and lung (source). He fell down the rankings but requalified for the current 2011/12 season via Q School, but missed almost all tournaments of the season again. For additional information you should check his profile at Pro Snooker Blog.

Another finnish player I found while doing the research is Jyri Virtanen. He won the European Snooker Championships Masters 2006 for players above 40 years against his countryman Kimmo Lang. (source)

Other players competing at international amateur championships were Mika Karhu, Aki Suutari and Tero Suvanto, but without huge success. However, Finlands Mika Immonen is a world class poolbillard player, winning the 9-Ball world championship in 2001, and the 10-Ball wc in 2009. Moreover he represented Europe at the Mosconi Cup 14 times, being MVP twice.

Norway

Norway has a starplayer with Kurt Maflin, but just like Finlands Robin Hull, he wasnt born there. Originally from London he married Anita Rizzuti. She is a pretty good female snooker player, reaching the quarters in the World Ladies Championship 2003 and being invited as one of two ladies to the World Open 2010 to reach a total field of 128 players (she lost her first round game to Alfie Burden 0:3)

But back to Kurt Maflin: After having a promising youth career he entered the Main Tour in 2001/02 as a pretty young player. His first season wasnt pretty good with just two wins at all. Back on the tour in 2003/04, he had a better year. Highlight was a 3-game-winning-streak at the Irish Masters qualifiers (to be fair: one was a walkover), before losing in the L64 round. Nevertheless he dropped off the tour again.

He was back for the 2006/07 season, after winning the IBSF World Championship 2006. He reached the final of the Masters qualifying event (former Benson & Hedges Championship) but lost to Barry Hawkins after collecting 5 wins against Greene, Trump, Higginson, Wenbo and White. He had a good run at the China Open qualifiers as well reaching the L48 round. Sadly for him he lost the first round of the world championship qualifiers against Wales' Gareth Coppack 9:10, which caused him dropping of the tour again. 

Back on tour in 2010/11 he made a maximum break at a PTC event 1, but had only a few wins, before reaching his first L32 stage at the China Open at the end of the season. He closely lost to local Hero Ding Junhui 4:5 at the venue stage. Although he hadnt collected enough points to stay on the tour again, he immediately requalified via Q School for the 2011/12 season. He reached L16 at PTC12 and L48 at Shanghai Masters and Welsh Open and has good chances to secure his Main Tour place. 

Detailed stats about him at cuetracker, he has a profile at Pro Snooker Blog too.

Another notable player is Bjørn L'Orange, who was #176 of the world in 1994/95 according to snooker.org. He won 5 national snooker championships between 1982 and 2000 (see medal table at national championships). He was a successful pool player as well, winning the European Championship twice (1983 in Straight Pool, 1986 in 9-Ball). 

Iceland

Icelands most famous player is without doubt Kristján Helgason, who is a IBSF U21-world champion. Moreover he won the EBSA European Championship 1998 and was a finalist in 1996, 1997 and 2005.

But maybe most important: he made it to the crucible theatre once as well! In 2000 he was able to qualify, but lost his opening game against Stephen Lee 3:10, making a highest break of 65 in that game. In his professional career his higest break is a 140 played at the Regal Scottish Open 2003. In the world rankings his higest spot was a #66 in the 03/04 season.

But he is not the only player worth mentioning from Iceland. In the mid-90s there were Fjolnir Thorgeirsson and Edward Matthiasson at around #400 in the world rankings (source). Another notable name is Johannes R. Johannesson, who made it to the final of the IBSF world championship (also known as World Amateur championship) in 1994, losing 9-11 versus Mohammed Yousuf of Pakistan. The last name I can drop here is Brynjar Valdimarsson, who reached the Last 16 of the European championship 2010.

An icelandic team also won the EBSA European Team Championship in 2000, although I couldn't investigate their lineup unfortunately.

...next episode: All of Asia (except China/Thailand)