Later today, four players will regain their professional status. Indeed, all eight players remaining in the draw have been professional at one point or another in their life.
Q School Event One: The Final Round
Sunny Akani came from 3-1 down to edge out Florian Nuessle 4-3 in a tense finish to reach the final round of Q School event one.
Austria’s Nuessle is aiming to earn a place on the pro tour for the first time but will have to wait for event two for another chance. Thailand’s Akani was relegated from the tour at the end of last season but now has the opportunity to bounce straight back.
The deciding frame came down to the final pink, and Akani potted it to book a meeting with China’s Bai Langning, a 4-1 winner over Leo Fernandez.
Rory McLeod top scored with 80 in a 4-1 win over Zhao Jianbo and will now face Fergal O’Brien, who beat Ross Muir 4-2 with a top run of 77. Veterans McLeod and O’Brien have a combined age of 101 and 58 seasons on the tour between them.
Brandon Sargeant saw off Harvey Chandler 4-2 with a top break of 88 and will now meet Rod Lawler, a 4-1 winner over Lukas Kleckers.
Hong Kong’s Andy Lee beat Daniel Womersley 4-1 to set up a match with Luke Simmonds, who recovered a 3-1 deficit to edge out Aaron Hill 4-3.
The winners of the four quarter-finals on Saturday in Sheffield will each receive a two year World Snooker Tour card, for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons.
…
Saturday’s quarter-final line-up:
Rod Lawler v Brandon Sargeant
Rory McLeod v Fergal O’Brien
Luke Simmonds v Andy Lee
Sunny Akani v Bai Langning
Three of those players – Sunny Akani, Bai Langning and Brandon Sargeant – are in their 20th. The other ones are all over 40. That’s not great and you have to wonder why this happens. Experience plays a role of course, and maybe the level of expectations the player and their entourage put on them. Maybe older players just accept that they aren’t at their best anymore and try to enjoy it while it lasts without putting themselves under too much pressure.
Michael Georgiou, who lost to Sunny earlier yesterday, was very gracious in defeat, praising his opponent on social media, but also stating that this would be his last Q-School, meaning that if he doesn’t succeed in regaining his professional status, he would put an end to his professional snooker ambitions.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
In fact, it’s not just that 5 of the players are over 40, 3 of them are over 50!
The problem is that the players are under such pressure in a relatively short best-of-7, that it does favour players who have had more experience, who have been in high-pressure situations many times before. Last night 4 of the 8 matches lasted over 4 hours (two with only 5 frames), most players had an AST over 30s with two players over 40s. This is interminable stuff. It proves nothing about the potential of players, and gives little guide to how they will perform on tour. You’d expect a system with the name ‘Q School’ to be a breeding ground for future players, but it mostly isn’t that at all.
A better system wouldn’t put them under so much pressure all the time, and actually give them a chance to play some snooker.
Yes, Lewis. I do wonder whether at least some of the matches should be longer. Deciding a professional ticket on a 7-frame match seems almost like tossing a coin… And longer matches would give players the chance to go through the gears.
There’s also the bigger question of how players can establish themselves once on the tour. Rory McLeod, for instance, has played quite well over the last couple of years, without pulling up many trees. But, with the lack of a tiered draw – how can it show? And how can the players who should make the cut be distinguished from those who are merely a bit lucky? And – of course – how are they supposed to survive on the current paltry payments for lower-round losers?
The money issue can only really be solved by growing the game globally. WST claim it’s a ‘philosophy’ not to pay first-round losers, but actually it’s because they don’t yet have the funds to pay the 64 players whilst retain the top prize money. Their priority is always to promote the guys at the top, who they would claim sell the game. That’s true, but it’s a horribly short-term view, and causing bankruptcy or forcing players to take other jobs doesn’t help the product either.
Tiered draws for some tournaments helps a little, but in general it will have to be by deregulation and stratification. In other words more tournaments, aimed at different levels of players. That way players can progress upwards. That’s also a requirement to expand globally. WST’s design can’t scale beyond a UK-based tour.
For Q School, they shouldn’t use knockout draws. In knockout every match is sudden death, with career implications, and the extreme pressure doesn’t allow proper snooker to be played. It isn’t a suitable test. Also, the draws are very uneven, with some players in a much easier section than others. I’ve outlined solutions before, even with computer simulations, but sadly WST don’t have a grasp of different tournament structures.
The money issue can only really be solved by growing the game globally. WST claim it’s a ‘philosophy’ not to pay first-round losers, but actually it’s because they don’t yet have the funds to pay the 64 players whilst retain the top prize money. Their priority is always to promote the guys at the top, who they would claim sell the game. That’s true, but it’s a horribly short-term view, and causing bankruptcy or forcing players to take other jobs doesn’t help the product either.
Tiered draws for some tournaments helps a little, but in general it will have to be by deregulation and stratification. In other words more tournaments, aimed at different levels of players. That way players can progress upwards. That’s also a requirement to expand globally. WST’s design can’t scale beyond a UK-based tour.
For Q School, they shouldn’t use knockout draws. In knockout every match is sudden death, with career implications, and the extreme pressure doesn’t allow proper snooker to be played. It isn’t a suitable test. Also, the draws are very uneven, with some players in a much easier section than others. I’ve outlined solutions before, even with computer simulations, but sadly WST don’t have a grasp of different tournament structures.