Gareth Allen (born 9 September 1988 in Mynydd Isa, near Buckley, Flintshire) is a Welsh former professional snooker player.
Allen started playing snooker aged three, joining his local snooker club and playing on full sized table at twelve. In a lengthy amateur career, Allen made his debut for the Welsh international side aged eighteen, where he reached the last 16 of the 2010 Amateur World Snooker Championship and narrowly missed out on a professional tour card in 2013, where he lost in the final to Robin Hull in the EBSA European Snooker Championships. He was also a regular competitor in Players Tour Championship events, where in the professional rounds he beat pros such as Kurt Maflin, Alfie Burden, Andrew Norman, Joel Walker and Nigel Bond.
He was also a regular competitor in the end of season Q School events since their introduction and in 2012 he lost in a quarter-final match against Paul Davison, which would have gained him pro tour status had he won. However, his run did enable him to feature in several ranking events during the 2012âÂÂ13 season, with the highlight being a win over then top 32 player Rory McLeod 4âÂÂ2 in qualifying in his home event the 2013 Welsh Open. His next match against John Higgins was televised, which he lost 4âÂÂ1.
Allen was successful in the 2015 Q School and earned a tour card for the 2015âÂÂ16 and 2016âÂÂ17 seasons by beating Alex Taubman 4âÂÂ2 in his final match of the second event. He won his first match as a professional by beating Adam Edge 5âÂÂ3 in Australian Goldfields Open qualifying, but lost 5âÂÂ1 to Jamie Burnett in the second round. Allen saw off Barry Pinches and Aditya Mehta both 5âÂÂ1 in the qualifying rounds for the Shanghai Masters, before losing by a reversal of this scoreline to Li Hang. He made his debut at the venue stage of a ranking event in York for the UK Championship and was defeated 6âÂÂ1 by Liang Wenbo. Allen then lost 15 successive matches from August 2015 until the start of the 2016âÂÂ17 season, when he beat Kurt Maflin 4âÂÂ3 to qualify for the Riga Masters. Allen won a match at the venue stage of a ranking event for the first time by edging past Ross Muir 4âÂÂ3 in the opening round of the Scottish Open and then lost 4âÂÂ3 to Mike Dunn. A 5âÂÂ4 win over Robin Hull saw him qualify for the China Open, where he was beaten 5âÂÂ0 by Ronnie O'Sullivan in the second round. Allen fell off the tour at the end of the season as he was placed 110th in the world rankings. Following his relegation from the tour, Allen announced his retirement from the game and started coaching after gaining his coaching qualification through the WPBSA.