A gifted left-hander, Dean Reynolds was one of a small group of young players who got into the professional ranks following good performances in the Junior Pot Black events. John Parrott, Dene O’Kane and Neal Foulds were others.

Dean comes from Grimsby which has also given the game Ray Edmonds and Mike Hallett.  He did not have a notable amateur career although by the age of 12 he was beating some of the best players in the local league but when he beat Dean O’Kane to win the inaugural BBC Junior Pot Black event, he went on to win the national under-19 championship and was immediately accepted into the professional ranks at the age of 18.

His first event as a pro was the 1982 Embassy World championship and he qualified for the Crucible stage where he, the game’s youngest player, met the oldest, Fred Davis, beating him 10-7 but losing in the second round to Silvino Francisco.

This was enough to put him in the rankings at 23rd. In his first full season he reached the quarter finals of the Professional Players tournament and the last 16 of the Jameson and the UK taking his ranking up to 19.

The following season he reached the last 32 of every event but got no further and in the next managed just one quarter final and his ranking seemed to be stuck in the mid twenties. In 1986/87 however, a semi-final in the Mercantile Classic and a quarter-final in the Goya Matchroom Trophy put him in the top 16 for the first time. He could not sustain his form and dropped back again straight away although he did win his one and only professional title in 1988, beating Neal Foulds 9-5 to take the English Professional championship.  1988/89 was a much better season and he reached his first ranking final when Tony Meo beat him 13-6 to win the 1989 British Open. A semi-final in the Fidelity International and a quarter-final in the Embassy took him back into the top 16.  His second ranking final came the next season in the Grand Prix but he was whitewashed 10-0 by Steve Davis. Nevertheless he reached hid highest ever ranking position of eighth as a result.

Dean only achieved one more semi-final and a couple of quarters and began to slide down the list. Away from the table he received a couple of convictions for drink driving and the second, in 1999 resulted in a four-month jail sentence. He was however freed to take part in the following season’s events on appeal but had to play wearing an electronic tag. He has received treatment for his drinking problems and still continues to compete on the main tour, albeit with a ranking in the sixties.