Ian Glover (born 8 November 1978) is a former professional snooker player from Doncaster. He practises at the Jeff Cundy snooker centre in Scunthorpe and the Sheffield Star Snooker Academy. His practice partners are the club's owner Jeff Cundy, retired professional Barry West, Ben Woollaston and Stuart Carrington.
Glover first entered Main Tour for the 1995âÂÂ96 season for the first of three seasons in the 1990s. After dropping off the tour in 1999, Glover took a hiatus from 2001 before returning to snooker in 2009, playing the secondary Pontins International Open Series tour, Glover finished the season 43rd in the Order of Merit with his best result being a quarter final defeat to Alfie Burden in the second event. Glover reached the last 16 of the 2009 Six-red World Championship, with a 5âÂÂ4 win over Ricky Walden in the last 32.
For 2010âÂÂ11, the PIOS was dropped and replaced by the pro-am Players Tour Championship and Glover enjoyed success in these events, with wins over former two times World Champion Mark Williams and top 32 player Marcus Campbell, wins which helped him reach the last 64 stage of Event 3 and last 32 of Event 4 respectively; however, these runs were not enough to earn him a place back on the professional tour at the end of the season and he failed to win place through the 2011 Q School also. He qualified for the main qualifying stages of the 2010 World Open. He lost 3âÂÂ1 to Anthony McGill in the first qualifying round.
From 2011 to 2014 Glover continued to enter PTC events but failed to advance beyond the last 128 stage and failed to win prize money. Glover however did return to the tour in 2014 for the 2014âÂÂ15 and 2015âÂÂ16 seasons after winning a two-year card in the EBSA Play-offs beating Gareth Allen and Jamie Clarke both 4âÂÂ2.
In the 2014/15 season Glover twice reached the last 32 of the PTC events (AT1 and ET1); however, in the major tournaments he failed to win a single match.
Glover began the 2015/2016 season positively, with a 5âÂÂ0 victory over promising amateur Ross Higgins in the Australian Open, but lost in the next qualifying round 3âÂÂ5 to Kyren Wilson. He overcame another amateur, Xu Yuan, in the Haining Open, but followed this 4âÂÂ2 win with a loss to Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon in the last 64. At the UK Championship, he led Jamie Jones 4âÂÂ3, but could not prevent a 4âÂÂ6 defeat; his 2016 German Masters qualifying campaign ended similarly, Glover taking the first frame but losing 1âÂÂ5 to the resurgent John Higgins.