Peter Lines has had a long and successful career in snooker. He has reached the final of both the English Amateur Championship as well as the quarter-finals in the China Open. Since 1991, he has been a professional. He reached the quarter-finals at the Strachan Open and Asian Open in the 1990s. He qualified for the televised stages in 1998 of the World Championship.
His career is not particularly noteworthy, but Lines' career performance over the last few years has been exceptional. For the first time in his career, he reached the top 64 of the Order of Merit, and he even made it to the quarter-finals of a ranking event. His most impressive season was the run at German Masters. There he reached semi-finals and nearly won.
After a promising start in his 2011/12 year, he found himself under immense pressure. The pressure mounted as the season progressed, and he started to lose matches in his last four ranking events. He was just 57th in the European Tour rankings at the close of the year. He was able to qualify for the World Championship qualifiers and secured a spot on the European Tour for another year.
He went on to play in two other major tournaments, defeating Ian McCulloch and Joe Perry. He was also qualified for the Players Tour Championships (PTC), but his performance was not sufficient to keep him in main tour.
In 2010, he won the UK Championship, but he was again relegated to the PTC events after the 2015/16 season. In the end, he continued to participate in amateur tournaments.
Lines' conduct during a match against Chinese pro billiards and snooker associations (WPBSA), was deemed inappropriate by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. The World Snooker Tour has received a complaint about Lines' behavior during a match in China and has initiated an investigation. The World Snooker Tour received a formal complaint from Xiao Guodong's group. It is likely that the matter will be referred the World Snooker Tribunal.
The case was presented on December 16th and Lines was found guilty by the WPBSA. But, Lines was found guilty in two cases relating to player conduct.
The first rule involved his replacement of the white ball after a foul and miss award. It is not uncommon for professional players to temporarily hang up their cues in this situation. Brendan Moore (Lines' opponent) fought with him on this issue. Both claimed Lines made an error. Lines, however, maintained that he was right.
The World Snooker Tour on the other side claimed that Lines used "swear language and intimidation" during his match. Lines threatened to fight outside.