Joe Perry (born 13 August 1974) is an English retired professional snooker player and a current commentator and pundit. Nicknamed "The Gentleman", he turned professional in 1992. On his Crucible debut at the 1999 World Snooker Championship, he defeated six-time World Champion Steve Davis 10–9 in the first round, winning the match on the last black ball. At the 2001 European Open, he reached his first ranking final, losing 2–9 to Stephen Hendry. He produced his career-best performances at the UK Championship when he reached back-to-back semi-finals in 2004 and 2005, losing respectively to David Gray and Ding Junhui. His best performance at the World Snooker Championship came when he reached the semi-finals in 2008, losing 15–17 to Ali Carter.
Perry played in his second ranking final at the 2014 Wuxi Classic, losing 9–10 to Neil Robertson. At the age of 40, he won his first ranking title at the 2015 Players Tour Championship Grand Final, defeating Mark Williams 4–3. He reached his fourth ranking final at the 2016 World Open, losing 8–10 to Carter. He contested the only Triple Crown final of his career when he faced Ronnie O'Sullivan at the 2017 Masters. Perry led 4–1, but O'Sullivan took seven consecutive frames to lead 8–4 and went on to win 10–7. Perry subsequently reached the final of the 2018 European Masters but lost 6–9 to Jimmy Robertson.
Perry reached his sixth ranking final and claimed his second ranking title at the 2022 Welsh Open, defeating Judd Trump 9–5 in the final. At the age of 47, he was then the second-oldest player to win a ranking title. After 33 consecutive seasons on the professional tour, he retired from professional competition at the end of the 2024–25 season, aged 50. He continues to compete on the World Seniors Tour, where he won the 2025 British Seniors Open and was runner-up at the 2026 World Seniors Championship. In 2024, he and his partner opened a snooker and pool hall in his hometown of Chatteris, Cambridgeshire.
Contents
Career
1999–2005
Perry made his Crucible debut at the 1999 World Snooker Championship, where he faced six-time champion Steve Davis in the first round. Perry led 7–2, but Davis recovered to tie the scores at 9–9 and force a deciding frame. Davis led by 52 points in the decider when he missed the blue, and Perry made a clearance of 55 to win the match on the last black. Perry lost 8–13 in the second round to Ronnie O'Sullivan.
Perry's breakthrough came when he reached his first ranking final at the 2001 European Open. In the 2004 World Championship, he beat defending champion Mark Williams 13–11, and also made the tournament's highest break of 145 (which remains Perry's best in competition, only equalled in the 2023 Northern Ireland Open). He lost to Matthew Stevens in the quarter-finals. He repeated this run in 2008, when he defeated Graeme Dott and Stuart Bingham, and bettered it by going on to beat Stephen Maguire 13–12 and earn his place in the semi-finals, where he narrowly lost to Ali Carter. Previously, he had also reached the last 16 on his Crucible debut in 1999, beating Steve Davis on the final black in the last 32.
He reached the semi-finals of the UK Championship in both 2004 and 2005. The 2004 defeat was especially notable as Perry had led 8–7 and potted a colour to leave his opponent, David Gray, requiring a snooker – however, Perry's pot had also left him snookered on the final red, which he failed to hit, allowing Gray to clear the table and ultimately win the deciding frame with a total clearance of 139. This run left Perry provisionally fifth in the world, but he failed to win a match in the remaining five tournaments and dropped to 14th at the end of the season as a result. In 2005, he lost to eventual champion Ding Junhui.
2007–2010
In the 2007–08 season, Perry reached two quarter-finals: in the Grand Prix (losing 3–5 to Gerard Greene) and the Welsh Open (with victories over John Parrott 5–2, Peter Ebdon 5–1 and Stuart Bingham 5–2 before Shaun Murphy beat him 5–0), as well as the last 16 of the UK Championship, where he beat Neil Robertson 9–6 after being 3–5 down, before losing 2–9 to Marco Fu. He followed that up by reaching the semi-finals of the world championship, where he was knocked out by Ali Carter 15–17. These results ensured him a return to the prestigious top 16 of the rankings (at No. 12, his highest ranking ever), meaning automatic qualification for major tournaments. He also finished the 2007/2008 season on another high, by winning the Championship League, to qualify for the Betfred Premier League for 2008. He has said he feels that he is learning to cope with the high pressure of major tournaments, having had more experience over the last season.
Perry opened 2008–09 with three last-sixteen runs, leaving him inside the top eight of the provisional rankings. However he went one better in the 2008 UK Championship beating Ronnie O'Sullivan 9–5 having trailed by 3–5, in one of the best victories of his career. However, he lost 7–9 to Marco Fu in the quarter-finals. In the new year, he suffered a narrow 5–6 loss to O'Sullivan in the Masters; he failed to win a match in a ranking event during the remainder of the season. He was unable to repeat his 2008 run in the World Championship, losing 6–10 to an in-form Jamie Cope in the first round. This meant that he finished the season ranked at number 12. In 2009–10, he reached one quarter-final and dropped to 19th in the rankings. In the World Championship he beat Michael Holt in the first round 10–4, and trailed Ali Carter 6–10 before winning five frames in a row to lead 11–10 but lost 11–13.
2011–2013
Perry was a losing finalist in Event 1 (Ronnie O'Sullivan won 4–0) and Event 12 (Stephen Maguire won 4–2) during the minor-ranking 2011/2012 Players Tour Championship series. These results helped him qualify for the Finals as he finished 11th on the Order of Merit. It was at the Finals where Perry had his best run in a ranking event during the 2011–12 season as he beat Fergal O'Brien and Graeme Dott, before being defeated by Neil Robertson 1–4 in the quarter-finals. In the other ranking events during the year he reached the second round three times, culminating in a 7–13 defeat to Maguire in the World Championship. Perry finished the season ranked world number 24. He began the 2012–13 season by reaching the second round of the Wuxi Classic thanks to the withdrawal of Matthew Stevens and lost 4–5 to Ricky Walden. He was beaten 1–5 by Marco Fu in the first round of the Australian Goldfields Open, before recording his best result of the year at the Shanghai Masters. He beat Barry Pinches in qualifying, Stevens 5–2 in the first round and then whitewashed Neil Robertson 5–0 to make the quarter-finals. There was never a frame between Perry and Mark Williams in their quarter-final, with Perry making a 131 break to force a deciding frame which he lost. He won two more matches in ranking events during the rest of the season, the first being a 4–0 triumph over world number one Mark Selby in the first round of the Welsh Open.
He was knocked out 3–4 by veteran Alan McManus in the subsequent round. The second was in the PTC Finals which Perry had qualified for by finishing 20th on the Order of Merit. He beat Stuart Bingham 4–2, before losing 3–4 to Ben Woollaston. Perry's season ended when he was beaten 3–10 by world number 83 Sam Baird in the final round of World Championship Qualifying. His end of season ranking was world number 20.
First title
In June 2013, Perry won the first minor-ranking title of his 22-year professional career at the opening event of the Players Tour Championship, the Yixing Open, with a 4–1 defeat of Mark Selby in the final. A week later, he outplayed Ding Junhui in the second round of the Wuxi Classic to win 5–1 and then beat David Gilbert 5–2 in the following round, before being defeated 2–5 by John Higgins in the quarter-finals. Another quarter-final followed at the Australian Goldfields Open, where he was eliminated 2–5 by home favourite Neil Robertson.
Perry won a quarter-final at the third time of asking this season at the International Championship with a 6–1 victory over Ryan Day. His semi-final match against Marco Fu was extremely close and involved long spells of tactical play, as many frames lasted 40 minutes, which Fu edged 9–8 on the colours. He also participated in the 2013 World Games in Cali, Colombia, where he represented the UK. He won his first game against Brendan O'Donoghue but subsequently lost in the quarter-finals to eventual gold medalist Aditya Mehta.
Perry's good play continued into 2014 as he advanced to the quarter-finals of the German Masters with the loss of just three frames, but he then lost 2–5 to Ding Junhui. He secured a 5–1 win over Selby in the quarter-finals of the Welsh Open, stating that his newfound casual approach to the game was a key reason for his successful season. However, it was Ding who once again halted his run in a ranking event as he beat Perry 6–4. A sixth quarter-final appearance of the season came at the PTC Finals, but he lost 2–4 to Judd Trump. He fought back from 3–6 down after the opening session of his first round match with Jamie Burnett at the World Championship to win 10–7 and set up a second round clash with reigning champion Ronnie O'Sullivan. Perry started the better of the two as he established a 5–3 lead after the opening session and maintained his two-frame advantage after the second, although he missed a chance in the final frame to be 10–6 ahead. He went on to lead 11–9, before O'Sullivan leveled the match and then made back-to-back century breaks to win 13–11, with Perry remarking afterwards that he had been "blown away by a genius" in the last few frames.
Perry said that if he could maintain his own attitude and mindset he would win his first major ranking title in the future. He ended the campaign as the world number 15, inside the top 16 for the first time in five years.
Major success
At the 2014 Wuxi Classic, Perry dropped just four frames to reach the semi-finals and then beat Martin Gould 6–4 to reach his second career ranking final and the first in 13 years. He played friend and practice partner Neil Robertson and from 6–8 down won three unanswered frames to stand on the edge of his first ranking title, but Robertson then made breaks of 87 and 78 to edge Perry out 10–9. Afterwards, Robertson suggested that Perry's talent should see him become a top ten player in the future. Perry failed to advance beyond the last 32 in the next four ranking events.
Perry defeated Ding Junhui 6–3 in the first round of the Masters, his first ever win in the tournament, but then lost 4–6 to Mark Allen with both players missing a catalogue of easy balls during the match which Allen described as "a comedy of errors" afterwards. However, less than a week later, Perry won the Xuzhou Open by beating Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 4–1 in the final to claim his second Asian Tour title in as many years.
Perry's form on the PTC circuit saw him seeded seventh for the Grand Final in Bangkok, Thailand. He defeated Ding Junhui 4–1, Anthony McGill 4–3 from 1–3 down, and Michael Holt and Stuart Bingham 4–1 each to reach his third major ranking final and second of the season. He recovered from 0–3 down against Mark Williams to win 4–3 and claim the first major title of his 23-year playing career, in addition to his highest prize earning of £100,000 and a place inside the world's top ten. When Perry finished the season at ninth in the rankings it marked his highest year-end ranking to date.
A pair of 5–3 wins over Jamie Burnett and Robert Milkins helped Perry to the quarter-finals of the 2015 Australian Goldfields Open, where he was on the wrong end of a 5–3 scoreline against John Higgins. His second quarter-final of the 2015–16 season was also against Higgins at the International Championship and he recovered from 0–4 down to make it 3–5, but then lost the next frame. Perry's ranking event title from last season saw him make his debut in the Champion of Champions and he beat Michael White 4–2 to face Higgins in the quarter-finals once again. There was never more than a frame between the two players and Perry came from 4–5 down to triumph 6–5. In the semi-finals he lost 6–4 to Neil Robertson.
After losing 3–6 to Robbie Williams in the second round of the 2015 UK Championship, Perry called his opponent's style and speed of play "a joke". At the Welsh Open he beat Judd Trump 4–3 in the fourth round and Ben Woollaston 5–1 in the quarter-finals to meet Ronnie O'Sullivan in the semi-finals. He made a 139 break during the match, but lost it 3–6. A second major event semi-final soon followed at the World Grand Prix as he conceded just two frames in eliminating Barry Hawkins (Perry's 133 won him the high-break prize), Kyren Wilson and Ali Carter. Stuart Bingham was never ahead of Perry until the frame as he squandered a 3–0 lead to be defeated 5–6. In an extremely tight World Championship first-round match, he was edged out 9–10 by Wilson.
Retirement
In April 2025, Perry announced that he would retire from professional snooker after the 2025 World Championship.
Seniors snooker
Perry defeated Stuart Bingham and Matthew Stevens to reach the final of the 2025 British Seniors Open, where he defeated Jimmy White 7–5 to win his first title on the World Seniors Tour. At the 2026 World Seniors Championship, Perry reached the final but lost 4–10 to Ronnie O'Sullivan.
Personal life
Perry was born in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, on 13 August 1974, the son of Peter and Judy Perry. His father worked as a taxi driver. When he was 14, his family moved to Chatteris, where he has lived since. In 2005, he married Joanne at Kimbolton Castle; the first of their two daughters was born the following year. Perry suffers from ankylosing spondylitis. During the 2012–13 season, before his condition was correctly diagnosed, he considered giving up his professional snooker career. He stated: "I was thinking about packing it in because I couldn’t take it anymore. I felt there was no point me flying overseas then not being able to even practice, and losing matches."
Perry and his wife subsequently separated, and his current partner is Penny Richardson. In March 2024, Perry and Richardson opened a snooker and pool hall in the Market Hill area of Chatteris, in a building formerly occupied by a Turkish restaurant. Perry stated that he had "always wanted to do something for Chatteris" as his and Richardson's children had grown up in the town. He said he hoped the club would "produce another Joe Perry". Professional player Neil Robertson practices at the club and Perry's personal match table is available to club members.
Perry is a supporter of Arsenal F.C.