We all know Q-School is a hideous gauntlet that everyone sweats pints to blood to become a professional. Fortunately, eight budding amateurs have won a professional two-year card and can relax for now. For the rest, the wonderful men and women have to go through it all over again one last time. This is until next year.
Here is a very brief summary of what is going on at Q-School!
How do the amateurs qualify now?
New change to the rules mean that there are now EIGHT tour cards available. Four of them go to those who have won their quarter of the draw. Easy peasy. The other four are won by those who top the Order of Merit.
The Order of Merit is a leaderboard of all of those who participated in Q-School. It takes into account of every single frame won over the course of all three events. Excluding those who have already qualified, of course, the four who have scored the most frames also achieve a two-year card. Currently, 16-year-old Chinaman Si Jiahui is the hottest prospect of the lot. He made at least 17 50+ breaks with a few centuries to boot and currently leads the Order of Merit, along with compatriots Shuai Lin and Lei Peifan.
For those who are in great need for a link to the table, you can find it at Snooker.org by clicking here. At this moment in time……..
Who are the surprising names in the hat?
Goodness, there are so many.
2015 Ruhr Open champion Rory McLeod. 2017 English Open semi-finalist Alexander Ursenbacher. 11-time ladies’ World Champion Reanne Evans. Professionals that reached the Crucible such as Robin Hull, Andy Hicks, Andrew Pagett, Barry Pinches and Joe Delaney. 2013 Indian Open finalist Aditya Mehta. Current Ladies’ World Champion Ng On-yee. 2017 World Seniors Champion Peter Lines.
Need I go on?
It is amazing how many players with such vast experience are still kicking to be a professional again. It is no wonder these sort of players are much more likely to qualify than their younger counterparts.
Talking about the younger counterparts, we can name a lot of prestigious youngsters. Estonian Andres Petrov, who is a 2017 European Championship finalist. Young, former professionals that include Hamza Akbar, Lukas Kleckers, Chris Totten and Ross Muir. 14-year-old Belgian Ben Mertens. 13-year-old Ukrainian Iulian Boiko. There are a number I could mention, but there’s a lot of talent among them!
Which players are most likely to be in with a shout of the professional snooker tour?
Pagett holds the fourth and final spot with 34 frames. There are 24 frames left to win, which rules out a lot of under-performing players who will find it impossible to reach that target. This includes France’s Brian Ochoiski, Kuldesh Johal and former pros Jamie Curtis-Barrett and Leo Fernandez. This also means there is still plenty of opportunity for a lot of players to go far into the tournament and steal a place too.
Now we can look at the Event 3 draw, which you can find by clicking here. There’s only so much you can tell in such a large draw. There are some awful opening ties, such as Pagett against Luke Simmonds, McLeod vs. Ian Preece and Michael Wild vs. Andreas Ploner. Those who are drawn against Q-School graduates will receive a bye, which means a vital 4 frames will be added to their total.
