Daryl Peach

At the 2015 World Cup of Pool, Peach and partner Mark Gray reached the final once again, but lost 8–10 to the Chinese Taipei team of Ko Pin-yi and Chang Yu-lung. Since this point, Peach has played sporadically in tournaments, but has failed to reach the later stages of any events.

Peach competed in the World Pool Masters for the next few years. He contested his first world championships—the 2000 WPA World Eight-ball Championship—but lost in the playoff round. Peach's career stalled for a few seasons when he did not reach the knockout round of any tournament. He then reached the round of 16 of the 2004 WPA World Eight-ball Championship, where he lost to Michael Schmidt 10–7. Peach also reached the later stages of two Euro Tour events first reaching the semi-finals of the Austria Open. Later he reached the final of the German Open, runner-up to Oliver Ortmann.

The semi-final featured Peach defeating Hungarian player Vilmos Foldes 11–2 to play Roberto Gomez in the final, in a race-to-17-racks match. The table for the final was swapped with another less-used table. Both players failed to play well. Peach took to the table better, reaching an early five-rack lead at 8–3. Gomez won six racks in a row to take the lead before Peach went ahead by two at 12–10. The match became tied at 12–12, and later 15–15. With two racks required to win the championship, Peach failed to bank the 9-ball; however Gomez also missed a similar shot, allowing Peach to get to the hill . A short safety battle ensued in rack 32, which was won by Peach, allowing him to run the rack and win the championship.

In defence of his world championship, Peach lost the first two matches in the double elimination round to Israel Rota and Artem Koshovoj, both by a score of 8–9.

In 2011, Peach reached the later rounds of both the World nine-ball and ten-ball championships. Peach reached the round of 16 of the ten-ball championship before losing to Carlo Biado. Peach reached the quarter-finals of the nine-ball event before losing to Dennis Orcullo. The following year, Peach won his fourth Euro Tour event at the 2012 German Open [de] .

Peach was chosen to represent Great Britain at the 2010 World Team Championship alongside Darren Appleton, Imran Majid, Karl Boyes, and Mark Gray. The team qualified for the round of 16, where they defeated Germany 4–0. In their quarter-final against the People's Republic of China, the match finished tied at 3–3, and so a tiebreaker was played in a race-to-six-racks. However, the winning team had to win by two clear racks. The match lasted significantly over six racks, with Peach making the winning shot to win 27–25. The team defeated Greece 4–2 to reach the final. In the final, the team played the Filipino team, winning 4–1 before Peach's singles match was played.

Peach is married to Lesley Peach; they have one child named Ellie. Peach is an amateur golfer, having gained a handicap of eight in 2010. When not playing pool, he develops real estate.

Representing England with partner Mark Gray, Peach has competed at the World Cup of Pool on six occasions, reaching the final in 2008 and 2015. Peach represented Great Britain and won the inaugural World Team Championship in 2010. He has also represented Europe in the Mosconi Cup in 1995 and 2007, and was a member of the winning team on both occasions. Peach was the youngest winner of the World Pool Masters, his first pool tournament, winning the 1995 event at the age of 23 years and three months. He is also the first player to have been rated as number one in the UK rankings, European tour rankings, and WPA World rankings concurrently.

Following Peach's world championship victory, he reached the round-of-16 stage of both the 2008 WPA World Eight-ball Championship and the U.S. Open Nine-ball Championship. In October 2008, Peach partnered Mark Gray at the 2008 World Cup of Pool. They reached the event's final, losing to the American team of Rodney Morris and Shane Van Boening. The World Nine-ball Championship was cancelled, so Peach retained his world championship status until the event returned in 2010. In the intervening years, Peach won his second and third Euro Tour events at the 2009 Portugal Open [de] and 2010 Italian Open [de] .

Peach is a four-time winner on the Euro Tour, having won events from 2007 until 2012. With a total of nine medals from tour events, Peach is the tenth most successful player on the tour of all time.

In 2007, Peach won his first tournament since 1995. Competing at the German Open Euro Tour event, he beat Dzmitry Chuprov 10–3, Niels Feijen 10–7, Thorsten Hohmann 10–7, and David Alcaide 10–5 to reach the final. There, he defeated Dimitri Jungo 10–3. After winning his first Euro Tour event, he told BBC that he had never lost belief in winning an event on the tour.

In November, Peach entered the 2007 WPA World Nine-ball Championship, held in Manila, Philippines, seeded 17th for the event. He won his double elimination round, reaching the knockout rounds. He then defeated Ronato Alcano 10–6, Lee Kung-fang 10–7, and Harald Stolka 11–5, to reach the quarter-finals. There, Peach drew Francisco Bustamante. Bustamante trailed 4–8 before winning six of the next seven racks to lead 10–9 in a race -to-11-racks match. With Bustamante hooked behind the 9-ball , he played a bank shot to make a combination shot to win the rack and match. Whilst Bustamante celebrated the victory, despite no foul being called, referee Nigel Reese consulted a television replay of the shot, and declared it was a foul, awarding Peach ball in hand . Peach took a five-minute timeout to calm his nerves before winning the rack and the decider, winning 11–10.

In becoming world champion, Peach was also selected to represent England once again, at the 2007 Mosconi Cup. He partnered Souquet, Feijen, Konstantin Stepanov, and Tony Drago. Peach won just one of his four matches at the event, losing singles matches to Shane Van Boening 2–6 and Earl Strickland 3–6, as well as losing two more. Peach's only win was a whitewash win over Van Boening and Strickland 6–0. In the match against Strickland, Peach called his opponent the "scum of the earth", following claims that Strickland purposefully attempted to distract Peach. The pair were later separated by Michaela Tabb, even after a warning from Tabb against Strickland.

This success gave him the opportunity to represent England at the 2006 World Cup of Pool doubles event, where he partnered Steve Davis. In the first round, the pair defeated the South Korean team of Jeong Young-hwa and Lee Gun-jae 9–6, but lost in the quarter-finals to Earl Strickland and Rodney Morris of the United States. Peach qualified by virtue of his 2005 performances for a place on the new International Pool Tour (IPT). He played in both the IPT World Open (eight-ball) and the IPT North American Open, reaching the round of 64 and the round of 16, respectively.

In 2005, Peach competed in all six Euro Tour events, reaching the main stages in each of them. He reached the round-of-16 stage at the Belgium and Swiss Opens, the quarter-finals at the German and Costa Del Sol Opens, and the semi-finals of the Austria Open. He later reached the quarter-finals of the WPA World Eight-ball Championship, after defeating Souquet in the round of 16, losing to eventual champion Wu Jia-qing. His season results led him to become the number one ranked player in the United Kingdom, a career first.

In 1996, Peach attempted to retain his championship at the European Masters, which was held in Blackpool. However, he was unable to progress past the round of 16, losing to Tom Storm. At the 1997 event, now renamed the "World Pool Masters", he defeated Leonardo Andam and Ralf Souquet (both 2–1) before losing to American Earl Strickland 0–2 in the semi-finals.

Following this loss, Peach was convinced by his friend Joe Walsh to take up nine-ball, and entered the 1995 European Pool Masters tournament (which later became the World Pool Masters). Peach won the event, defeating Lee Kendall 2–0 in sets, making him the youngest winner of the tournament at age 23 years and three months. Following his win, he was asked to represent Europe at the 1995 Mosconi Cup partnering pool players Kendall, Oliver Ortmann, Tom Storm, and snooker players Steve Davis, Alex Higgins, and Ronnie O'Sullivan. The European team won the series, 16–15; however, Peach won just two of his six matches. Following the two events, Peach decided not to renew his professional snooker status, opting to play pool instead.

Daryl Peach (born 8 March 1972) is an English professional pool player, from Castleford, Lancashire, who resides in Blackpool, England. He won the 2007 WPA World Nine-ball Championship, where he defeated the Philippines' Roberto Gomez 17–15 in the final to become the first British player to win the WPA World Nine-ball Championship.

Daryl Peach was born on 8 March 1972 in Castleford, Lancashire, England. Peach moved to Blackpool when he was fourteen. Originally a snooker player, Peach turned professional in 1991 but was unable to reach the main stages of any tournaments. He reached a peak ranking of 250th in the world on the World Snooker Tour. His last snooker tournament was the 1995 Welsh Open, where he lost 4–5 to Matthew Stevens in the opening qualifying round.