Jamie Burnett (born 16 September 1975) is a Scottish former professional snooker player from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire.
A journeyman, Burnett was ranked within the world's top 64 players for 20 consecutive years between 1996 and 2016, reaching his career best ranking, 27th, in 1999. He appeared in one major final, at the 2010 Shanghai Masters, where he lost 10–7 to Ali Carter, and reached the final of one minor-ranking event, the 2012 Gdynia Open, where Neil Robertson beat him 4–3.
Career
Burnett made his mark in the 1997 German Open by reaching the quarter finals and equalled his best run the following year in the 1998 Grand Prix. In a 1997–98 season dominated by Stephen Hendry, Burnett claimed two victories over the world number one as well as recorded victories over Stephen Lee and Mark Williams. He made his first appearance in the final stages of the World Championship in 1996, when he led Terry Griffiths 5–0 and 9–5 before losing 9–10. His second appearance did not come until 2009, equalling Barry Pinches' record for the longest gap between Crucible appearances.
During the qualifying stages of the 2004 UK Championship, he was the first player to complete a break of over 147 in a professional match, playing against Leo Fernandez. After being awarded a free ball Burnett took the brown as an extra red, then a brown, then added 15 reds and 12 blacks, two pinks and a blue. He then potted the colours to complete a 148 break. He afterwards commented "I didn't really know how to react afterwards. At first I thought it was no big deal, but then I realised I'd made history."
Burnett qualified for the 2008 UK Championship, losing 3–9 to his practice partner Stephen Maguire in the first round. Bookmakers ceased taking bets on the exact scoreline after a surge of bets for that result. In frame 12 Burnett had a chance to make the scoreline 4–8, missing a straightforward final black by so much that BBC analyst John Parrott suggested that an amateur player would be unhappy. The BBC's Clive Everton commented that the circumstances of the final two frames merited investigation. Everton said in commentary "An independent inquiry should be conducted by snooker people with knowledge to appreciate the relative difficulty of shots. The last two frames should be studied particularly closely."
The World Snooker Association decided to investigate the circumstances behind the result, before a formal police investigation was launched, days before Burnett met Maguire in the 2009 World Championship. Following a report from Strathclyde Police, the Crown announced that it had found insufficient evidence to justify a criminal prosecution.
Burnett qualified for the 2010 Shanghai Masters. He started in the wildcard round, and benefited from Ronnie O'Sullivan withdrawal of the main draw to receive a bye to the second round. Burnett then beat Andrew Higginson, Mark Davis (coming back from 0–3 and 1–4), and Jamie Cope en route to his first ranking event final, where he was defeated 7–10 by world number 4 Ali Carter.
Burnett could not qualify for a single ranking tournament during the 2011–12 season. He finished it ranked world number 39 and needed to perform well in the first three tournaments of next season, before he lost the large number of ranking points he gained for reaching the 2010 final in Shanghai.