Barry earned his place on the professional tour in 1996, following a successful junior and amateur career.
He dominated the 2009-10 WS UK Tour series, comfortably finishing Top of the Merit List, winning one event and reaching two more finals, from over 400 players to secure his professional ticket.
After his first season Barry jumped a massive 104 places in the rankings after reaching the Last 64 of both the UK Championship and The British Open.
He climbed into the Top 32 in the World in 2004-5, having taken some notable scalps along the way.
One of those victims was Ronnie O’Sullivan, who Barry beat at the 2002 Scottish Open. He also reached the quarter finals of the LG Cup that season.
He continued his steady progress and claimed a place in the Top 16 in 2006-7 on the back of a string of excellent results.
During the 2005-6 season he reached two ranking event semi finals, The Welsh Open and the Grand Prix and beat China’s Ding Junhui to qualify for the Crucible.
There followed a love hate relationship with snooker’s most famous venue. Barry qualified five consecutive years but lost his first round match each time, twice on the final black of the match.
However in 2011 he broke the voodoo. He beat Anthony Hamilton to qualify and then went on the beat Stephen Maguire to reach the Last 16. He eventually lost 13-12 to On Q stablemate Mark Allen.
In 2006-7 Barry reached the final of the Invitational Kilkenny Masters, and the semi finals of the China Open, again beating Ding Junhui.
The highlight in the next season was to win the Masters Qualifying Tournament to earn a place in the Masters.
He narrowly missed out on a Top 16 place after the 2008-9 season, finishing ranked number 17. Barry got through to the quarter finals of the Northern Ireland Trophy but lost out 5-4 to Ronnie O’Sullivan in a memorable match. O’Sullivan had led 4-1 before Barry battled back to level at 4-4. The decider was won by O’Sullivan.
Barry was soon back on the winner’s podium, winning a WSA Tour event in 2010.
But the best was yet to come. Having finished the 2010-11 season on a high with his brilliant performances at the Crucible, 2012 started in style as Barry won six matches to lift the 2012 Sky Shoot Out title, beating former World Champion Graeme Dott in the final.
The 2012-13 season started in the best possible way as Hawkins lifted his first World Snooker Ranking Event title, the 2012 Australian Goldfields Open, beating Peter Ebdon in the final.
He married fiance Tara in June 2012.
