After nearly two gruelling weeks, we are reaching the final chance for these amateurs to qualify to be a professional snooker player either for the first time or for another final crack at the whip. 202 players have been battling it out to do so and 8 have already earned their stripes. Only 4 places remaining. So what’s been happening?
Event 1
Among those playing in Q School are those who have just been relegated from the tour. 17 decided to make an immediate comeback to the professional circuit. Weirdly, all four qualifiers have shot right back up 4 and managed to qualify on their first attampt out of three events: Jak Jones, Sam Baird, Hammad Miah and Sam Craigie.
Sam Baird came into the amateur event as one with a lot of experience under his belt. This is his third successful attempt to qualify, having done so via Q School in 2012 and via the European Order of Merit at the end of the 2013/2014 season. He had a horrible season after losing a huge amount of points from reaching the Last 16 of the 2016 World Snooker Championships. He managed to qualify in his first attempt by beating former professionals Barry Pinches and Adam Duffy and Chinaman Hu Hao in the final.
chuffed for sam baird after torrid season on and off the table,certainly back where he belongs like wise other qualifiers,big well done
— Robert milkins (@robmilkins147) May 19, 2018
Also joining him are No. 82 Welshman Jak Jones and Englishman No. 78 Hammad Miah. Despite being only 24 years of age, this is the fourth time Jones qualified for the professional tour, which means he must have the tenacity and perseverance of a saint at this rate. He has yet to reach the Top 64 yet, though has reached the Last 16 twice in the past two years in the 2016 English Open and the 2017 Snooker Shoot-Out. For Miah, this is his third time to qualify, though he did so via Q School in 2012 . He was very impressive last season by reaching the Last 32 three times by taking the scalps of Luca Brecel, Tian Pengfei and Tom Ford. He qualified by beating Jeff Cundy, Reanne Evans and finally whittewashing Luke Simmonds to gain his spot.
Alhamdulillah back on the world snooker tour, feel like a kid again! Excited times 😜
— hammad miah (@HammadMiah147) May 19, 2018
Craigie was one of the hot and popular favourites to qualify via Q School and some have said he is too good to be outside of the professional tour. He would count himself very unlucky as he lost the final place of the one year ranking list due to Lyu Haotian bursting into the Top 64, leaving No. 65 Oliver Lines to take the final spot. But he dusted himself off and smashed it, putting in three centuries and pushing aside former Crucible semi-finalist Andy and everyone’s favourite Thai player Dechawat Poomjaeng to put himself back on the map. He is highly rated among his peers including Neil Robertson and had whitewashed Judd Trump 5-0 last season, so let’s hope he makes a greter impact!
https://twitter.com/samcraigie147/status/997936581691535360
Event 2
After the conclusion of Event 2 yesterday, four more warriors have now entered the fray: Jordan Brown, Craig Steadman, Lu Ning and Zhao Xintong.
Jordan Brown is an interesting case and it’s fantastic that another Northern Irishman has joined the tour after years of Mark Allen and Joe Swail being the only representatives for a number of years. He was a professional back in 2009/2010 and dropped out after one season. He could’ve qualified months earlier, having reached the EBSA European Snooker Championship final this year, only to be beaten 7-2 by Englishman Harvey Chandler. He showed briefly what he can do by beating Ben Woollaston in the Northern Irish Open and was leading Hammad Miah in the World Championship qualifiers before being knocked out in a decider 10-9. He will certainly throw a spanner into the works!
Another year, another event where we see two young Chinamen reach the professional tour. Lu Ning had his first spell between 2014 – 2016 before being outcast into the amateur ranks.The 2013 IBSF World Under-21 Snooker Champion got through his quarter relatively trouble-free after his first round scare in a victorious decider against Andy Marriott and then dropped just 4 frames in 5 matches, defeating Mitchell Mann 4-2. Zhao Xintong shook off his surprise defeat to Steven Hallworth in the first event in almost the same fashion as his compatriot as he won his first match in a decider and got through undisturbed, beating Poomjaeng 4-1.
But i wait my new John parris cue now🤗🤗🤗
— Zhao xintong (@WwwXintongzhao) May 25, 2018
It’s good that we have two Chinamen replacing the two who got suspended for match-fixing, huh?!?!?!? Too soon? Nope.
Then we come to Craig Steadman. He is back on tour for goodness knows how many times. A brilliant player with great love of the game was poor last season last year and hadn’t reached the form he was in when he reached the 2015 World Championship. Below is a wonderful interview by the brutally honest Steadman:
"It's a different kind of pressure… Your professional status is at stake."@stedz1 is back on the pro tour through #QSchool2018 Event 2, and gives a great interview on how much it means to players coming through pic.twitter.com/d9esxcrwZ8
— WST (@WeAreWST) May 25, 2018
Event 3Â
4 places left. Still a lot of players hoping to get a last ditch place! So who are the people to look out for? Many people seem to have a lot of different opinions on this matter:
Q School Event 3:
Castle
Hallworth
Cope
Leong
Hirani
Page
Lilley
Duffy
Grace
Hicks
Lee
Mann
Poomjaeng
Patrick4 from that 14 will qualify in my opinion.
— George Weyham (@GWSnookerTips) May 25, 2018
If we are talking about form, Dechawat Poomjaeng is the man to beat. He reached the final round in both events, beaten by arguably the some of best players in the qualifying school, Sam Craigie and Zhao Xintong. The top players include 2016 Indian Open quarter-finalist David Lilly, Sheffield boy Adam Duffy and former professionals Luke Simmonds, James Cahill, Jamie Cope, Andy Lee and Thor Chuan Leong.
One thing that is really interesting is that there isn’t one qualified amateur who will make his actual professional debut yet. Jackson Page is still in the mix, having lost both of his matches on deciders. If you have to point at one man it is fellow Weshman Kishan Hirani, who is 9th in the Q School Order of Merit. He also has a huge advantage because he got a bye because Jordan Brown already qualified, his Round 2 opponent Nutcharut Wongharuthai would’ve played Sam Baird and then Wongharuthai withdrew from Q School. Other youngsters raring to go include Chinese trio Hu Hao, Geng Mingqi and Liu Jiaming followed by Jake Nicholson, Austrian Andreas Ploner and Sean Maddocks.
So what happens after Q School? Well there’s a Challenge Tour with 10 events with two tour places up for grabs! The Top 64 players who failed to make it to move to the Challenge Tour (or Snookerbacker Classic 2.0, take your pick). The list for the Q School Order of Merit is here and having a brief look at it, players like Andrew Pagett, Reanne Evans, Louis Heathcote and Frenchman Brian Ochoiski need to get their heads screwed on a tad:Â http://www.snooker.org/res/index.asp?template=46
Let’s bring it on! 🙂
