There are 12 snooker rookies joining the main tour. Considering the number of players who returned to the tour either immediately or after a few years in the amateur ranks, it’s quite refreshing to see new talent coming through. There is an endless supply of snooker players from China as there are four newbies from the Far East this season. What is also very interesting is the amount of British talent emerging too. It is widely debated that there aren’t enough opportunities for British rookies to practice and the strength in depth is getting smaller.
Since there are 12 rookies, I will keep it brief on each player. I call it brief, I mean two paragraphs worth or as much as I can muster. I wrote a huge amount in my previous blog on Jamie Clarke and Luo Honghao: https://clusterofreds.com/2018/06/13/2018-2019-season-who-to-watch-out-for/.What is exciting is we have more rookies from Continental Europe in Simon Lichtenberg and Adam Stefanów. Hopefully this year, we may see an African player win a match for a change!
Ashley Carty
Ashely Carty had taken several cracks at qualifying via Q School as well as EBSA Qualifying Tour Play-Offs in recent years. We saw glimpses of great stuff from Carty. His best performance came from the 2014/2015 season. This rookie qualified for the main event in the 2015 German Masters by beating professionals Robert Milkins and James Cahill. He also reached the Last 32 of the 2015 Welsh Open by beating Michael Holt and whitewashing Alfie Burden.
He qualified via Q School on his final attempt by winning Event 3 and won an interesting matchup with Indian Himanshu Dinesh Jain, winning 4-2. He said afterwards in his interview:
“It hasn’t sunk in yet. My head is all over the place at the moment, I don’t know what to think. I’m just so happy to finally get on tour.” It is the biggest pressure I have ever felt on a snooker table. I don’t know how you cope with it. You just need to somehow hold it together. All the hours of practice have paid off in the end.”
Harvey Chandler
Out of many, many English amateurs, there always seems to be some rookies who have gone completely under the radar. I hadn’t heard of Harvey Chandler until he was involved in the EBSA European Snooker Championship. He went into the knockout rounds as the 5th seed having won all of his group matches. He beat former professionals Fraser Patrick in the semis and crushed Jordan Brown 7-2 in the final.
Dream Come True Winning the 2018 European Championship in Bulgaria, Sofia. & Earning a 2 Year Professional Tour Card! @BarryHearn @WorldSnooker1 @jasonferguson5 @BBCSnooker @BBCSport @TheEASB pic.twitter.com/ZAgdeCiVHy
— Harvey Chandler (@HarveyChandler) February 21, 2018
Before that, he attended the 2017 Paul Hunter Classic, where he won the first round against professional Li Yuan before losing to Joe O’Connor in the Last 64.
Chen Feilong
Here is one of the many Chinese rookies emerging from the amateur scene. He qualified as one of the top two non-professionals on the Chinese Professional Snooker Tournament, also known as the China Tour. What is quite interesting that he is 35 years of age. This is unlike the running conveyor belt of teenagers who are rated as the next best thing after Ding Junhui.
His best result came in the 2012 Shanghai Masters where he beat Fergal O’Brien 5-2 in the Wildcard Round and was defeated by Neil Robertson in the Last 32. Last season he won two pre-qualifying round against Fan Zhengyi and Li Zhen in the China Open and Shanghai masters respectively.
Jamie Rhys Clarke
It took him a while (8 failed attempts to be precise) but Jamie Clarke finally got what he worked for. He won the EBSA Qualifying Tour Play-Offs by beating former Crucible semi-finalist Andy Hicks and defeating George Pragnall in the deciding frame. He is an exciting prospect among Welsh rookies and a lot of professionals rate him very highly and I think he will go far this season. He said after his win, in an interview with World Snooker:
“It means everything, I have worked really hard for it and I am just relieved. I know that I can compete on the tour. I don’t know if I will stay on or anything but if I can get a bit of confidence and work hard we will see what happens.”
Fan Zhengyi
Fan Zhengyi won the IBSF World Under-21 Snooker Championship by beating compatriot and No. 1 seed of the event Luo Honghao. The final went to the deciding frame and Fan nicked it, winning 8-7.
However, he lost all of his matches against professionals last season, including Martin Gould and Tian Pengfei. There is not a lot about this player, yet he seems to be overshadowed by Luo Honghao. Not sure how he will do, but we will see!
Kishan Hirani
I do remember that Kishan Hirani qualifying multiple times via Q School and lost in the final round before 2015. However, my fading memory doesn’t really matter, as he finally got the final Q School spot by winning 4-2.
A fellow blogger has come up with a more in-depth analysis on this chap, so please follow this link for more info: https://georgessnookertippingline.wordpress.com/2018/06/08/5-players-to-follow-in-the-2018-19-snooker-season-includes-special-season-bets-rts-feedback-appreciated/
Mohamed Ibrahim
Mohamed Ibrahim will join a long line of African rookies and snooker players by winning the ABSF African Snooker Championships against Mostafa Dorgham by six frames to one. Here is the Egyptian rookie below:
He competed in the 2012 Six-red World Championship where he lost all of his group matches, though pushed Mark Davis to the deciding frame before losing 5-4. It always begs the question as to whether African players have the money as well as the talent to win a match on the professional circuit, let alone reach the Top 64. We hope fortune will shine of his abilities, but I’m not holding my breath.
Simon Lichtenberg
By now everyone has heard of Simon Lichtenberg, but not for winning the EBSA European Under-21 Snooker Championships. Despite coming out on top in Sofia against Tyler Rees in the final (6-3), he initially wasn’t allowed on tour at all. Why?
This is unusual for snooker for politics to dominate the headlines. There was a very public spat between World Snooker and the International Billiards and Snooker Federation, which led to the formation of the World Snooker Federation. Because Lichtenberg’s native country Germany wasn’t part of the World Snooker Federation, he couldn’t participate on the professional tour. This caused outrage among fans and players, chastising the big bosses to be playing politics with someone’s livelihood. It is even harsh on Lichtenberg as he had nothing to do with the political chasm the people above have caused.
Thankfully, people had got their heads out of their own backsides and gave Lichtenberg the opportunity to be a professional. This will mean National Federation for snooker in Germany will join the Federation. The German rookie will hope to bring more success with first German professional Lukas Kleckers, who has only won one match last season.
Thanks @WorldSnookerFed and @WorldSnooker1 for offering Simon #Lichtenberg a place on the professional tour. It's the right decision for the game and especially for a hard working young player. #Snooker is the winner!#147sf
— Rolf Kalb (@Rolf_Kalb) February 16, 2018
Luo Honghao
I talked about Luo a lot in my previous post so I’ll try and not be too repetitive. Though this hotshot lost to Fan Zhengyi in the IBSF World Under-21 Snooker Championship, he won the first World Snooker Federation Championships by thrashing Adam Stefanów 6-0.
As a China Open qualifier, the rookie beat four professionals including Top 16 player Anthony McGill. Unfortunately, he was unable to participate in the World Championship qualifiers because he couldn’t obtain a visa in time. I just hope this doesn’t jeopardise his season anymore.
Joe O’Connor
Joe O’Connor is an amateur player who’s been around for quite a while. A former junior pool champion, he benefited from playing against the likes of Neil Robertson and Mark Selby due to his performances at Q School. Now the Leicester man is following Selby’s footsteps to be a professional by beating Brandon Sargeant and Oliver Brown in the EBSA Qualifying Tour Play-Offs.
Even after turning professional, O’Connor already got a title under his belt. He recently won the English Amateur Championship by comfortably defeating Andrew Norman 10-3 in the final. This had to be the perfect way to cap off a successful amateur career for the 22-year-old. Below is his recent interview:
Adam Stefanów
Adam is the first Pole to be in the professional tour since Kacper Filipiak who dropped out at the end of the 2011/2012 season. Adam Stefanów admitted that he was falling out of love with the game after living in Sheffield for three years. He mentioned that the WSF Championships were his final chance as he mentioned he was offered a good job back in Poland. Despite beating Igor Figueiredo and storming back from 3-1 down to beat Icelander Kristjan Helgason, he was whitewashed 6-0 to Luo Honghao.
Being a WSF finalist, he was able to participate in the World Championships Qualifiers. He beat Gary Wilson 10-8 in the opening round before losing to Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 10-4. After Lyu Haotian reached the Top 64 in his first year, that left an extra space to fill on the main tour. Being a WSF finalist, Adam Stefanów was only too happy to take that spot to finally be a professional.
Zhang Jiankang
There is not much we know about rookie Zhang Jiankang. Like Chen, he qualified for the tour as one of the top two non-professionals on the Chinese Professional Snooker Tournament. The 19-year-old had been very impressive in the 2017 IBSF U-21 Championship who whitewashed Welsh stalwart Jackson Page 4-0 but lost out to eventual winner Fan Zhengyi in the semi-finals.
One of the latest wins against the professionals was against Ross Muir, who he beat 6-3 in the 2016 International Championships before losing to Stuart Bingham 6-1. As a wildcard, he lost to Billy Joe Castle 5-2 in the first round of the 2017 Shanghai Masters.
