World ranking: 15
Last five seasons: 13-17-19-18-11
Date of birth: 09-12-66
Lives: Stoke, Staffordshire
Turned professional: 1991
Ranking tournament victories: 1 - Asian Open 1993
Last season's prize money: £94,800
Career prize money (up to start of 2001-2002 season): £590,727
Highest tournament break: 142 - Benson and Hedges Championship 1993

Stoke potter Dave Harold was a 500-1 outsider when he won his first and only world ranking tournament to date - the 1993 Asian Open in Bangkok.

His 9-3 victory over Darren Morgan in the final sparked an impressive run of results, which took him through to the final of the 1994 Grand Prix and catapulted him into the top 16.

Victories over Neal Foulds and Rod Lawler enabled him to reach the quarter-finals of the 1996 Embassy World Championship before his run was halted by Nigel Bond.

Harold missed out on a trip to the Crucible in 1999 when he was beaten 10-7 by Joe Perry in the final qualifying round but he made no mistake in 2000, beating Anthony Davies 10-7.

"That was the first time I had missed out in six years and having to stay at home and watch it on the television was a real sickener," he said. "You have to be at the Crucible; that's where all the best snooker is played. I have reached one quarter-final and I want to do better than that before my career is out."

Harold's hopes of doing that in 2000 were dashed by John Higgins and he suffered his eighth defeat in as many meetings with Ronnie O'Sullivan in the last 16 in 2001, going down 13-6.

However, his 10-5 first-round victory over Australian Quinten Hann proved enough to preserve his place among the game's elite top 16.

The highlight of Harold's season came in the Benson and Hedges Masters at Wembley Conference Centre. He beat Higgins 6-3 and then came from 5-1 down to defeat John Parrott 6-5 in the quarter-finals.

He could not quite repeat the feat against Fergal O'Brien in the semi-finals, losing 6-4, but was rewarded with a cheque for £45,000 - by far the biggest payday of his ten-year professional career.

"It was just a bridge too far," he said afterwards. "You can come back from 5-1 down once but twice in a row is asking too much."