On his way to the Shanghai final he beat Rory McLeod, Ken Doherty, Adrian Gunnell, Dave Harold and Mark Selby.

He also beat Peter Ebdon at the 2008 Malta Cup, despite a bout of stomach cramps and a drinking session the night before the match.

[4] Dale is the only player to have won multiple ranking tournaments without ever reaching the top 16, but he was 14th on the one-year list for both 1997/1998 and 1999/2000 (missing out due to an unsuccessful 1998/1999 season).

[6] He then beat home favourite Neil Robertson on the final black in a 5–4 win lasting almost four hours,[7] before losing to Mark Williams in another final-frame decider, having never been behind in the match until the end.

[17] Dale reached the opening round of the World Championship by dispatching Alfie Burden 10–5 and played Judd Trump at this stage for the second successive year where he was defeated 10–5.

[20] The result seemed to kick start his season as the following week he beat Steve Davis and John Higgins at the German Masters, but let a 3–1 lead slip in the last 16 against Ding Junhui to lose 5–3.

[23] Dale followed this up with a 13–4 win over Michael Wasley (who had beaten pre-tournament second favourite Ding Junhui in his opening match) to reach the quarter-finals for the second time, 14 years after the first.

[24] Dale played Barry Hawkins and trailed 11–5 after the second session, but then amazingly won seven frames in a row to be just one away from reaching the semi-finals and matching the biggest comeback at this stage ever at the Crucible.

[25] Dale lost 5–3 to Mark Davis in the first round of the Australian Goldfields Open and he reached the semi-finals of the Six-red World Championship, where Ricky Walden beat him 7–1.

[27] This last 16 defeat would prove to be Dale's best finish in a ranking event this season as he could not win another match at a venue until the China Open, when he ousted Jimmy Robertson 5–3, but then fell 5–2 to Barry Hawkins in the second round.

[29] Breaks of 72, 73, 82 and 61 saw Dale sneak past Mark Williams in the opening round of the Players Championship Finals 4–3, before he lost 4–1 to Shaun Murphy.

[30] Dale won more than one match at a ranking event for the only time this season when he knocked out Jamie Jones and Darryl Hill at the China Open, but then was beaten 6–1 by Stephen Maguire in the third round.

At the Paul Hunter Classic he enjoyed victories over Ben Woollaston, Ian Glover, Michael Holt, Yan Bingtao and Jimmy White to play in the semi-finals of a ranking event for the first time since 2007.

[33] In the final World Championship qualifying round Dale made the 200th century break of his career, but would be defeated 10–5 by Luca Brecel.