PREVIEW: Q School

Qualifying school – a place where players of the United Kingdom try to break into the professional ranks. And some Irish. And plenty of Chinese players or course, including Hong Kong. A few Indians. An Estonian. A couple of Poles. And an Austrian just in case. Let’s not forget a Finn, a Romanian and an Israeli! A number of Germans. Including some Maltese. A South African. Maybe an Australian. A Pakistani. An Israeli. Even an American? WHAT THE HECK IS SOMEONE FROM JAPAN DOING PLAYING SNOOKER???????

There are twelve places up for grabs in this cut-throat world of qualifying school and because the draws are completely unseeded, the competition is completely open. When there were high hopes for hot prospects, all can be crashing down by those amateurs who you wouldn’t know much about. This, of course, happened last year when the likes of Ian Preece, Jamie Curtis-Barrett and Alex Borg qualified at the expense of the likes of Andy Hicks, Jamie Clarke and Gerard Greene.

Rules are simple. Two events. 5-6 matches of best-of-7s in each event, both tournaments running consecutively. Each event will result in four quarter-finalists, who will be rewarded with a professional two-year touring card. There are four more places up for grabs for the top four players who performed the best out of the two events who failed to win their place via the Order of Merit!

There is little point in me analysing who will win. It’s that open and competitive, especially in a short format. But who are among them? It’s more fierce than you think….

THOSE SEASONED EX-PROS 

To kick off, look at the calibre of players here!

Of those who have just dropped off the tour, players include Crucible semi-finalist and Shoot-Out finalist Joe Swail and Masters semi-finalist Jamie Cope (who was as high as No. 13 six years ago!) Swail would feel hard done by, considering he worked so hard to get back on tour by reaching the final of the 2012 Paul Hunter Classic, but his poor performances resulted in him relegation. Cope failed to repeat his performances in his first year back on tour when he back Neil Robertson to reach the Last 16 of the Shanghai Masters – whether he is still struggling with the ‘yips’ I don’t know.

Other seasoned pros include two-time ranking event winner and Steve Davis-humiliator Tony Knowles; commentator Mike Hallett; Tony ‘The Tornado’ Drago; World Championship semi-finalist and Quinten Hann-irritator Andy Hicks; and the former No. 18 Barry Pinches. Drago, Hicks & Pinches tried to qualify through Q School and failed, though Hicks did well enough to participate in ranking events due to his Q School performances. Barry previously joked that he aims to beat the longest frame O’Brien/Gilbert of two hours, three minutes and 41 seconds, a record he and McManus previously held.

@robwalkertv can't believe the record has gone.Will be trying even harder to get on tour to have another crack at a110 minute frame#qschool

— barry pinches (@barrypinches) April 12, 2017

THOSE DARLINGS WHO WANT ANOTHER CRACK 

Some players have just dropped off the circuit this season (Lam, Hill, Wilson). Others dropped off the season before to tone their skills away from the professional scene to come back and have another go (Hallworth, Lu). Others are still trying (Evans, Filipiak).

Sanderson “the Panda” and Sydney Wilson showed glimpses of promise, but reaching No. 93 and No. 100 in the rankings respectively meant that he has to do well here. Former U21 champions Lu Ning and Darryl Hill also feature and Hallworth hopes to be closer to being a professional again after losing 4-1 to Gerard Greene in the EBSA Qualifying Tour Play-Offs. Reanne Evans was once a professional in the 2010/2011 but lasted a year. She has had decent success in Q School but after defeating Robin Hull 10-8 last season, she must take great confidence to finally qualifying. Polish Kacper failed to live up to Ronnie O’Sullivan’s billing of being a future World Champion, having struggled to qualify through World and European amateur events since dropping out of tour in 2011/2012. Can he finally do it this time?

THOSE LOVELIES ITCHING TO MAKE THEIR PROFESSIONAL DEBUT

It’s amazing how many talented youngsters are still waiting in the wings and still not qualified. Jamie Rhys Clarke is one of those people. He is nicknamed the “Welsh Whirlwind” simply because of his lack of luck to reach the top. He failed to win in five finals within a single year, including two EBSA European Snooker Championship finals, one IBSF World Under-21 Snooker Championship and two EBSA Qualifying Tour Play-Offs. I want him to finally get on tour, but this is seriously tough.

Other international youngsters Estonian Andres Petrov (reaching the 2017 EBSA European final), Maltese Brian Cini and German Lukas Kleckers, who reached the 2016 IBSF World Under-21 semi-finals. Jackson Page seems to have enough to having double Biology lessons on a Monday morning to participate here. He clearly has the talent – he reached the Last 32 of the Welsh Open; won the EBSA U18 Championship and the final of the U21 EBSA Championship.

Teilnahme an der Qschool

Kurz nach dem Ende der Profiweltmeisterschaft findet ab dem 9.5. in Preston die…https://t.co/k2D5dmQRWy #147sf

— Lukas Kleckers (@KleckersLukas) May 2, 2017

Now that we talked about the young people with their YOLOs, Pokemon Go and university bar crawls, what about the others? Ng On Yee, the two-time Women’s Snooker Champion will have another crack to be the second woman on tour after Evans. David Lilley, who reached the Indian Open quarter-final by beating professionals Robert Milkins and Mark Williams is also there, hoping to ditch his job as an insurance claims controller. His Q&A is here: http://www.worldsnooker.com/david-lilley-qa/.

For all the information, Q School draws are here: http://www.worldsnooker.com/q-school-draw-format/ and will take place between 9th-20th May. For all of the scores: the link is here: http://www.snooker.org/res/index.asp?event=618

Wish everyone the very best of luck!