Peter Ebdon exploded onto the snooker scene when he sent six-times world champion Steve Davis crashing out of the Embassy World Championship in 1992.

His brave potting and unconventional image of a pony-tailed snooker star made him an instant hit with the fans and after his 10-4 drubbing of Davis, he went on to reach the quarter-finals in what was his first season as a professional.

His giant-killing earned him the WPBSA Young Player of the Year award and just one year later Ebdon was collecting his first ranking title trophy as champion of the Grand Prix - not bad for a man with the handicap of colour blindness.

But snooker's two major prizes continued to elude him.

Stephen Hendry, who dominated the sport in the 1990s, beat him 10-3 in the final of the 1995 UK Championship before racing to an 18-12 victory against Ebdon in the final of the 1996 Embassy World Championship.

Ebdon's route to the final that year could not have been harder - he left Jimmy White, Davis and Ronnie O�Sullivan in his wake before finally succumbing to Hendry in the final - a defeat which he blamed partly on mental fatigue.

But the man from Northamptonshire, who now sports a shaven head, saw his form deteriorate in the World Championship, losing 10-3 to Stefan Mazrocis in 1997 and crashing out in the quarter finals in 1998.

He was beaten by Matthew Stevens in round one in 1999 and by Dominic Dale at the same stage in 2000.

But earlier this year, Ebdon lived up to the name of one of his horses - Poetry In Motion - when he cantered to victory in the British Open - beating White 9-6 in the final.