[7] However, he won an invitational event that featured many top players, the 2007 Paul Hunter Classic that August, beating Neil Robertson and Ken Doherty en route.
In the 2011–12 season Pinches narrowly missed out on a maximum 147 break at Event 2 of the Players Tour Championship in Gloucester, making it to the final black.
[13] He made it to the main draw at the next event, the 2012 International Championship, thanks to wins over Daniel Wells, Xiao Guodong and Joe Perry.
[14] This was the furthest Pinches got in a ranking event this season, with it coming to an end when he was defeated 9–10 by Liam Highfield in the second round of World Championship Qualifying.
Pinches stated before the match that he would stick to his percentage game with a defensive approach as he has always played the same no matter who the opponent is and he was defeated 4–1.
[19] Pinches had a consistent season in the European Tour events with his deepest runs being last 16 defeats at the Kay Suzanne Memorial Cup and Gdynia Open which saw him finish 49th on the Order of Merit.
Pinches won three games to play in the final qualifying round for the Australian Goldfields Open where he lost 5–3 to Ebdon.
[22] Pinches' sole win in a ranking event this season came at the Welsh Open by defeating Jimmy White 4–3, but he was knocked out 4–2 by home favourite Mark Williams in the second round.
At the Ruhr Open, Pinches and Alan McManus set the record for the longest official snooker frame at 100 minutes and 24 seconds.
[31] In June 2019, Pinches came through the third event of the 2019 Q School by winning six matches to earn a two-year card on the World Snooker Tour for the 2019–2020 and 2020–21 seasons.
In June 2021, Pinches came through event 2 of the 2021 Q School by winning five matches to earn a two-year card on the World Snooker Tour for the 2021–2022 and 2022–2023 seasons.