And tomorrow we will already have the first event of the 2018/19 season underway: the first event of the new Challenge Tour will be played in Burton.
Worldsnooker just published the draw and format
The draw and format for Challenge Tour event one in Burton is now available.
The event will be played from Saturday 2nd June – Sunday 3rd June.
The Challenge tour is open to the 64 best Q-school players not having qualified for the main tour, plus a number of nominations.
Here is the 2018 Q-School order of merit
Rank Points 1 David Lilley 56 2 Dechawat Poomjaeng 55 3 James Cahill 53 4 Adam Duffy 52 5 Luke Simmonds 45 6 Jamie Cope 45 7 Fang Xiongman 42 8 Farakh Ajaib 42 9 Andy Hicks 41 10 Michael Judge 40 11 Kuldesh Johal 39 12 Hu Hao 38 13 Chen Zhe 37 14 Geng Mingqi 35 15 Mitchell Mann 35 16 Shane Castle 34 17 Simon Bedford 34 18 Ben Hancorn 33 19 Steven Hallworth 32 20 Leo Fernandez 31 21 Jamie O’Neill 31 22 Jackson Page 31 23 Laxman Rawat 30 24 Fraser Patrick 30 25 Wang ZePeng 30 26 Joel Walker 29 27 Liu Jiaming 29 28 Kristjan Helgason 29 29 Peter Devlin 29 30 Wang Yuchen 29 31 Barry Pinches 28 32 David Grace 28 33 Sydney Wilson 27 34 Lee Daegyu 27 35 Greg Casey 27 36 Himanshu Jain 27 37 Phil O’Kane 26 38 Jake Nicholson 26 39 Heikki Niva 26 40 Callum Lloyd 26 41 Jamie McArdle 26 42 Jamie Curtis – Barrett 26 43 Jeff Cundy 26 44 Patrick Whelan 25 45 Dylan Emery 25 46 Brian Ochoiski 25 47 Andreas Ploner 25 48 Lucky Vatnani 25 49 Haydon Pinhey 24 50 Ning Kang 24 51 Long Zehuang 24 52 Ma TingPeng 24 53 Sean Maddocks 23 54 Brandon Sargeant 23 55 John Foster 23 56 Brandon Hall 23 57 David Craggs 22 58 Matthew Day 22 59 Felix Frede 21 60 Charlie Walters 21 61 Anthony Jeffers 21 62 Adam Edge 21 63 Andrew Smith 20 64 Chae Ross 20 65 Dylan Craig 20 66 Marc J Davis 20 67 Joshua Cooper 20 68 Wu Shengguang 20 69 John Pritchett 20 70 Michael Collumb 20 71 Daniel Womersley 19 72 Kacper Filipiak 19 73 Jack Bradford 19 74 Lee Shanker 19 75 Daniel Ward 19 76 Tyler Rees 19 77 Andrew Pagett 18 78 William Lemons 18 79 Sergey Isaenko 18 80 Reanne Evans 17 81 Wayne Townsend 17 82 Simon Dent 17 83 Manasawin Phetmalaikul 17 84 Joshua Thomond 17 85 Alex Taubman 17 86 Antony Parsons 17 87 Callum Costello 16 88 Saqib Nasir 16 89 Ross Bulman 16 90 Andres Petrov 16 91 Louis Heathcote 16 92 Hans Blanckaert 16 93 John Parkin 15 94 Michael Williams 15 95 Ben Jones 15 96 Clayton Humphries 15 97 Daniel Devlin 14 98 Omar Alajlani 14 99 Mateusz Baranowski 14 100 Kurtis Weaver 14 101 Mark Vincent 14 102 On Yee Ng 14 103 Ka Wai Cheung 14 104 Oliver Brown 14 105 John Whitty 13 106 Zak Surety 13 107 Andy Marriott 13 108 Luke Pinches 13 109 Umut Dikme 13 110 Christopher Keogan 13 111 Lewis Ullah 13 112 Michael Wild 13 113 Tam Mustafa 12 114 Samuel Thistlewhite 12 115 Matthew Couch 12 116 Daniel Gorton 12 117 Jamie Brown 12 118 Gary Challis 12 119 Dave Nelson 12 120 Jamie Trump 12 121 Danny Brindle 12 122 Alex Borg 12 123 Alex Millington 12 124 Andrew Milliard 12 125 Keith Keldie 12 126 Bash Maqsood 12 127 Alex Davies 11 128 Matthew Roberts 11 129 lulian Boiko 11 130 Ryan Thomerson 11 131 Simon Blackwell 11 132 Ronan Whyte 10 133 Ryan Causton 10 134 Nutcharut Wongharuthai 10 135 Jed Mann 10 136 Shafaqut Hussain 10 137 Matthew Glasby 10 138 Paul Burrell 9 139 James Burrett 9 140 James Welch 9 141 William Thomson 9 142 Leong ManHoi 9 143 Labeeb Ahmed 9 144 Richard Somauroo 9 145 George Pragnall 9 146 Ahmed Aseeri 9 147 Shehzad Iqbal 8 148 Owais Ali 8 149 Darryl Hill 8 150 Mike Finn 8 151 James Silverwood 8 152 Dessie Sheehan 8 153 Ahmed Elsayed 7 154 Steven Evans 7 155 Belan Sharif 7 156 Haider Ali 7 157 Jenson Kendrick 7 158 Tugba Irten 6 159 Adam Brown 6 160 Niel Vincent 6 161 Mark Ganderton 6 162 Ben Fortey 6 163 Aaron Holland 6 164 Daniel Walker 6 165 Daniel Kandi 5 166 Jaspal Bamotra 5 167 Corey Deuel 5 168 Joshua Saywell 5 169 Stefan Mazrocis 5 170 Constantin Mateescu 4 171 Peter Delaney 4 172 Heather Clare 4 173 Luke Garland 4 174 Dan Woolloff 4 175 Steve Martin 3 176 Jason Turnbull 3 177 James Height 3 178 Mihai Vladu 3 179 Imran Puri 3 180 Jake Keen 2 181 Dean Goddard 2 182 Billy Ginn 1 183 Darren Burns 1 184 Aaron Cook 1 The Q School 2018 Ranking List has been calculated by awarding 1 point for every frame won. All players who received a bye into Round 2 have been awarded 4 points for round 1. Players who have won the same number of frames are then ranked based on frames won in the 1st event and then frames won in the 2nd event and finally frames won in the 3rd event.
Here you will find the information about the Challenge Tour nominated players.
Challenge Tour Nominations Announced
The WPBSA and World Snooker have today announced further information in respect of the nominated players who will participate in the new Challenge Tour.
To operate as a secondary circuit to the World Snooker Tour, Challenge Tour will comprise 10 events to be staged across the UK and mainland Europe during the 2018/19 season.
Players
The top 64 players on the final 2018 Q School Rankings, excluding those who have qualified for the main tour, will be eligible to compete in each Challenge Tour event.
Up to eight more players will be added to the tour based on the following criteria agreed by the WPBSA in consultation with the World Snooker Federation (WSF):
European WSF Member Federations hosting Challenge Tour Events
- National Champion of Latvia
- National Champion of Belgium
- TBC – EBSA Host European Federation
Players who reached the semi-finals of the 2018 World Snooker Federation Mixed Championships
- Kacper Filipiak of Poland
- Kristjan Helgason of Iceland*
World Women’s Snooker Tour
- Ng On Yee of Hong Kong (2018 WLBS World Women’s Snooker champion)
- Reanne Evans of England (2017/2018 season end WLBS World Women’s no.1 ranked, or next in line if the same as world champion)
*unless qualifying for the main tour through Q School
The eighth nomination was the WSF Championship runner-up Adam Stefanów, however it was recently announced that he is now to join the World Snooker Tour from the 2018/19 season.
Should any of the above players not enter a Challenge Tour event, any further players will be selected based upon the Q School Rankings. National federations will not have the option to transfer these invitations to other players.
Challenge Tour will provide a direct pathway to the World Snooker Tour, with the top two players on the final Order of Merit to receive a two-year professional ticket from the start of the 2019/20 season.
There will be a total prize fund of £100,000 to be provided by the WPBSA as part of its ongoing commitment to amateur snooker which has recently seen the formalisation of the International Federation for Snooker, the WSF.
WPBSA Chairman Jason Ferguson said: “I am delighted to see the gap between amateur and professional snooker getting smaller with the introduction of the World Snooker Challenge Tour in Europe. We have seen many young talented players coming through in China through competing on the CBSA Tour which provides excellent playing opportunities for leading players in the region. There is a strong appetite from elite performing amateur players across Europe to have similar opportunities as they look to develop a full-time career in our sport.
This new Challenge Tour will not only provide the opportunity to compete at a high-level in match conditions, it will also be a place where as a world governing body we can educate the next generation of players and officials to safeguard our sport’s future.”
The first Challenge Tour event gets underway this Saturday at the Meadowside Leisure Centre in Burton and will run for two days with a total prize fund of £10,000.
The Latvian National Champion is Rodion Judin and the Belgian National Champion is Kevin Van Hove.
The Q-School only produced two “new” professionals: Kishan Hirani from Wales and Ashley Carty from England. Very well done and good luck to them! The ten others all have been pros before, with seven of them returning immediately after dropping off the tour after the Crucible, less than a month ago.
You will also find here the complete list of 2018/19 Main Tour Professionals
Tour Players 2018/19
With the final four players securing their professional tour cards as this year’s Q School reached its conclusion yesterday, we can now confirm the final list of players who will compete on the World Snooker Tour during the 2018/19 season.
The Top 64 (64)
These players finished inside the top 64 of the official world ranking list at the end of last season and so will retain their places on the circuit, with a one-year card.
End of season rankings:
- Mark Selby
- Ronnie O’Sullivan
- Mark Williams
- John Higgins
- Judd Trump
- Ding Junhui
- Barry Hawkins
- Shaun Murphy
- Kyren Wilson
- Neil Robertson
- Ali Carter
- Mark Allen
- Stuart Bingham
- Anthony McGill
- Luca Brecel
- Ryan Day
- Stephen Maguire
- Marco Fu
- Liang Wenbo
- Joe Perry
- Mark King
- Graeme Dott
- Yan Bingtao
- Martin Gould
- Xiao Guodong
- Jack Lisowski
- David Gilbert
- Ricky Walden
- Michael White
- Anthony Hamilon
- Michael Holt
- Tom Ford
- Zhou Yuelong
- Jimmy Robertson
- Robert Milkins
- Li Hang
- Ben Woollaston
- Cao Yupeng
- Jamie Jones
- Gary Wilson
- Mark Davis
- Mark Joyce
- Yu Delu
- Kurt Maflin
- Hossein Vafaei
- Dominic Dale
- Matthew Stevens
- Chris Wakelin
- Michael Georgiou
- Stuart Carrington
- Fergal O’Brien
- Noppon Saengkham
- Mike Dunn
- Andrew Higginson
- Peter Ebdon
- Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
- Robbie Williams
- Scott Donaldson
- Matthew Selt
- Liam Highfield
- Lyu Haotian
- Rory McLeod
- Daniel Wells
- Alan McManus
The Two Year Cards (32)
These players competed on the main tour in 2017/18 and will start the 2018/19 season on the second year of their two-year tour cards.
- Akani Songsermsawad
- Martin O’Donnell
- Gerard Greene
- Alexander Ursenbacher
- Xu Si
- Yuan Sijun
- Ian Burns
- Zhang Yong
- Peter Lines
- Li Yuan
- Robin Hull
- Allan Taylor
- Duane Jones
- Nigel Bond
- Chen Zifan
- Ashley Hugill
- Niu Zhuang
- Chris Totten
- Eden Sharav
- Paul Davison
- Soheil Vahedi
- Billy Joe Castle
- Hamza Akbar
- Ross Muir
- Joe Swail
- Sanderson Lam
- Sean O’Sullivan
- Rod Lawler
- Rhys Clark
- Lukas Kleckers
- Basem Eltahhan
- Matthew Bolton
The Top Eight (One-Year Ranking list) (8)
The top eight players on the one-year ranking list, not already inside of the top 64 of the two-year ranking list or on the first year of a two-year card, have earned a tour card for the 2018/19 season. They receive a fresh two-year tour card, starting on zero ranking points.
- Elliot Slessor
- Tian Pengfei
- John Astley
- Oliver Lines
- Lee Walker
- Mei Xiwen
- Alfie Burden
- Zhang Anda
Q School (12)
A further 12 will be promoted from the Q School and again they will receive a two-year tour card.
- Jak Jones (2018 Q School Event One semi-finalist)
- Sam Baird (2018 Q School Event One semi-finalist)
- Hammad Miah (2018 Q School Event One semi-finalist)
- Sam Craigie (2018 Q School Event One semi-finalist)
- Jordan Brown (2018 Q School Event Two semi-finalist)
- Craig Steadman (2018 Q School Event Two semi-finalist)
- Lu Ning (2018 Q School Event Two semi-finalist)
- Zhao Xintong (2018 Q School Event Two semi-finalist)
- Thor Chuan Leong (2018 Q School Event Three semi-finalist)
- Kishan Hirani (2018 Q School Event Three semi-finalist)
- Andy Lee (2018 Q School Event Three semi-finalist)
- Ashley Carty (2018 Q School Event Three semi-finalist)
EBSA Play-Offs (2)
Two more qualified via the EBSA Play-Offs at the English Institute for Sport last month. They will also earn a two-year card.
- Jamie Clarke
- Joe O’Connor
China Tour Nominations (2)
Two players have qualified via the CBSA China Tour. They earn a fresh two-year tour cards.
- Chen Feilong
- Zhang Jiankang
International Nominations (6)
The remaining players come from a mix of other amateur/international competitions and again will earn a two-year card.
- Luo Honghao (WSF Championship winner)
- Adam Stefanów (WSF Championship runner-up)
- Harvey Chandler (EBSA Championship winner)
- Simon Lichtenberg (EBSA u-21 Championship winner)
- Mohamed Ibrahim (African Championship winner)
- Fan Zhengyi (U-21 Championship winner)
Invitational Tour Cards (3)
There are a further three players who will be able to play having been awarded invitational tour cards.
- Jimmy White (SECOND year of a two-year invitational tour card)
- Ken Doherty (SECOND year of a two-year invitational tour card)
- James Wattana (FIRST year of a two-year invitational tour card)
The season gets underway with the Kaspersky Riga Masters qualifiers to run from 2-5 July 2018 at Preston’s Guild Hall.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Yes we know what to expect from many of these players – for most of them it will be a similar trip to Q-School in 2020. Several of them will probably be completely out of their depth. Of this year’s Q-School graduates, Sam Craigie, Zhao Xintong and Hammad Miah will probably become stable professionals or better.
Of the really new players Luo Honghao is a standout talent and a confident and engaging personality – one of my ‘Big 5’ young Chinese who all reached the Q-finals in Zibo last week. Fan Zhengyi (at 17 the youngest on tour) also has an impressive record in asian amateur and junior events, but his technique is so extreme I’d have to reserve judgement.
Of the Europeans I expect Lichtenberg and Stepanow to do a little better than Kleckers, but not as well as Ursenbacher.
The first Challenge Tour event draw looks very thin, but that could be because it comes right on the back of Q-School, and players have had to go back to their day jobs! It will be interesting to see if the overseas players are able to play regularly, and if it helps any young players to make progress towards professional level.
I know that Brian Ochoiski, from France, intends to play as much as he can and that his father Stephane is determined to support him 100%. Regarding the Belgians, I’m not sure: Kevin Van Hove had a very tough last year, his partner is battling cancer, they have a young boy. Kirstin is a player herself and she surely will support him but what will be really possible remains to be seen. If Kevin can’t play, I hope they will allow Julien Leclercq to fill the gap. Julien is only just 15 and was runner-up to Kevin at the Belgian Champs. And there is also, Ben Mertens, only 13 1/2, junior champion, and IMO possibly even better than Luca.