Peter Lines has been a long-standing player in snooker. He was a finalist in the English Amateur Championship and reached the quarter-finals at the China Open in 1999. His professional success began in 1991 when he became a professional. In the early 1990s, he made the quarter-finals of the Asian Open and Strachan Open. 1998 was his first appearance in the televised World Championship stages.
Although his career is generally unremarkable in nature, Lines' performance during the last few decades of his career was more than admirable. He made it to at least the quarter-finals of ranking events for the first times in his career. His season's highlight was his run at German Masters. He made it to the semi-finals but came so close to winning.
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. Fortunately for him, he secured a place on the tour for a further year, and he was also able to make it to the qualifiers of the World Championship.
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. He continues to participate in amateur tournaments.
Lines' behavior at a Chinese match was not acceptable according to 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. There was a formal complaint filed by Xiao Guodong and the matter is expected to be referred directly to the World Snooker Tribunal.
The case was presented on December 16th and Lines was found guilty by the WPBSA. An interesting aspect of the fine was that Lines was found guilty by two rules related to player behavior.
After a foul or miss, the first rule was his replacement of white ball. This is not unusual for professional players. Brendan Moore was Lines' opponent. They argued over this matter. Both Lines and Moore claimed Lines had committed an error. Lines however maintained that he was right.
The World Snooker Tour stated that Lines used intimidation and swear words during the match. Moreover, Lines threatened to fight outside the arena.