2022 Q-School Event 3 – The end

The 2022 UK based Q-School is over …

Congratulations to James Cahill, John Astley, Jenson Kendrick and Lukas Kleckers, the laureates of  the 2022 Q-School Event 3, the last of the “traditional” Q-School events for this season

Here is the report by WST:

Cahill, Astley, Kendrick and Kleckers Earn Tour Cards

James Cahill, John Astley, Jenson Kendrick and Lukas Kleckers came through Q School Event Three in Sheffield to earn two-year cards for the World Snooker Tour.

All four players now have the right to compete on the pro circuit for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons and they complete the lineup of 12 qualifiers, with all three events now concluded.

Cahill booked his return to the circuit with a 4-1 defeat of China’s in form Zhao Jianbo, who also lost in the final round of event two.

Cahill is renowned as a big game player, having beaten both Mark Selby and Ding Junhui at the UK Championship. He also famously defeated Ronnie O’Sullivan in the first round of the 2019 World Championship.

The 26-year-old has struggled against lesser opponents on occasions and most recently dropped off the circuit at the end of the 20/21 campaign.

Cahill confidently got himself over the line against Zhao, composing breaks of 69, 68 and 79 on his way to the win.

Brutal is the word for this event. It is hard because there is a lot of pressure. When you commit your life to it and it is your only chance to get on it is hard,” said Blackpool’s Cahill.

I didn’t really want to go and play the Q Tours. There is a lot of pressure out there to win. I am just glad I managed to hold myself together.

I’m delighted to get through. I just want to thank Peter Lines who came down for this event and the last one to support me. He didn’t need to do that. He has experience of getting through this as well, so I just want to say thank you to him.”

Astley battled past former Shoot Out winner Michael Holt 4-2 to seal his place on the World Snooker Tour. The 33-year-old had suffered two unsuccessful trips to Q School after dropping off the circuit following the 19/20 season, but it was a case of third time lucky today.

Holt came to Q School as one of the biggest names in the field, following his surprise relegation at the end of the recent World Championship. However, the 43-year-old must now face up to spending at least this season without professional status.

Astley said: “It is just happiness and relief. It is amazing to get through. It is such a tough tournament and the last match is not very nice at all, you can’t really enjoy it. I just tried to stay focussed and as calm as I could the whole match.

I’ve been on and off the tour a little bit and I was a top up last season, but that’s not really on the tour. It has been a tough couple of years since Covid and to get back on the tour, where I think I belong is a massive relief.

Stoke’s 21-year-old Kendrick earned a place on the World Snooker Tour for the first time with a 4-1 win over Haydon Pinhey. Kendrick has never been beyond pre-qualifying for a professional event before, but he will get his opportunity on the sport’s biggest stage next season.

Kendrick said: “I gave it absolutely everything practising for coming here. I was playing really well, but on the other hand you are playing great players. There are 40 or 50 players here that can get on the tour. I am one of the 12 and I can’t believe it.

I’ve dedicated my whole life to the game and finally it is paying off. I can’t thank my mum and dad enough. Since I left school they have done absolutely everything for me so that I could do the best that I can.

Germany’s Kleckers immediately returned to the tour with a nerve-shredding 4-3 defeat of Scotland’s Ross Muir. Kleckers made the last 16 of last season’s British Open, but still fell off at the end of the campaign. He crafted breaks of 78 and 75 on his way to victory today.

I am so delighted. It was a very hard 17 or 18 days of playing. To do it in the last event is even better, because the pressure is so big. I am delighted,” said 26-year-old Kleckers

I am very proud to represent Germany. We all know about the German Masters and the European Masters is there now as well. Many people watch it and it makes me very proud to play for them.

2022 Q School Qualifiers

Event One

Fergal O’Brien

Rod Lawler

Andy Lee

Bai Langning

Event Two

Aaron Hill

Zak Surety

Sanderson Lam

Adam Duffy

Event Three

James Cahill

John Astley

Jenson Kendrick

Lukas Kleckers

Eventually, the three Q-School Events yielded only ONE new player on the tour… all others have been pros before. That’s not great, that’s not healthy for our sport.

Jenson Kendrick is 21, young but not a kid. It will be interesting to see how he fares during his first two seasons as a pro. He will be more mature than the “standard” 16-18 years old rookie and might manage his expectations better than they do. What I mean is that a 16 years old might start full of enthusiasm, not appreciating how brutal the pro tour actually is, only to be hit very hard, mentally and emotionally, when they suffer defeat after defeat. A 21 years old will, hopefully, have a more realistic perception of what awaits him and cope better.

This time there are no tour cards for those at the top of the order of merit.

The first four players in this list are:

  1. Zhao Jianbo
  2. Ross Muir
  3. Steven Hallworth
  4. Sunny Akani

Those four have a reasonable chance to get the opportunity to play in about every tournament. For those further down, the opportunities will be limited.

Michael Holt is 10th on that list, Kurt Maflin 11th and Andrew Higginson 13th.  They might be invited a couple of times … at best.

Incredibly, Ashley Carty, who qualified for the Crucible as recently as 2020 finds himself well down the list, as do Martin O’Donnell and Soheil Vahedi who has sacrificed so much to become a professional snooker player.

Michael Georgiou has made it clear that this is the end of his professional ambitions.

Iulian Boiko and Gao Yang are also relegated. Will they be able to stay in the UK, play in the Q-Tour and pursue their development if they so wish? Incredibly they are only 16 and 17 years old respectively. They were far too young to be on the professional tour, especially as they had to live as expats in the UK, away from their family,  dealing with a different language, different food, a different culture.

What now for those guys? What now for those whose already long career comes to a brutal end? What now for the far too young whose development might be irretrievably compromised?

I know that professional sport is brutal, but still …  the outcome of this Q-School leaves me sad, more so than in previous years. I must be getting old.

 

 

 

 

 

 

4 thoughts on “2022 Q-School Event 3 – The end

  1. Yeah, it is pretty disappointing. Two more years of hearing how Ronnie lost to Cahill in that match (as chances are this will remain Cahill’s only claim to fame), while there are a few, like Sunny whom I’ll miss and people like Maflin and especially Soheil Vahedi I rooted for (can Vahedi now get a visa and stay in the UK, get some job?) and of course Iulian Boiko: I usually don’t support anyone based on nationality, but in this case yes, Slava Ukraini. But a lot of these (my) considerations are personal and not necessarily related to the state of the game…

  2. This year’s Q School was more brutal than any I can remember. Objectively the qualifiers are the weakest ever, both in absolute terms and relatively. This is not a criticism of them – they managed to overcome strong opponents and fully deserve their success.

    But what happened to the ‘favourites’: Holt, Maflin, O’Donnell, Akani, Higginson, Walker, Hallworth, …? They were crippled by the pressure of sudden-death, knowing their careers could collapse very quickly. This pressure affected them from the first match until the last, and increased stradily with each event. There were some abnormally slow shot-times, strange behaviour during the matches, and many choked shots.

    Some people would applaud the fact the Q School is a ‘proper test’, ‘if you’re not good enough…’, and brutality is part of the deal. I think that’s a brainless attitude. Q School should be about finding suitable professionals. This was just a bloodbath with players falling over the line. The kind of snooker that worked here is not an indication of what they can achieve against the main tour players.

    We are still in the shadow of covid. Everyone has been impacted. Some players (Maflin and Akani) were arguably relegated because of covid-related issues. Many amateur players were not able to practice and play to develop their game. WST should have protected their professionals a bit more, and avoided a scenario where the standard might slide. We will have far too many weak professionals next season, and too many fine players absent.

    Like you I hope the overseas players are allowed to stay for the Q Tour and top-up places. Si Jiahui has shown that the opportunity is there to do well, and two amateurs qualified via the 1-year list. If players like Sunny Akani, Zhao Jianbo, Gao Yang, Liu Hongyu, Ben Mertens, Cheung Ka Wai, Florian Nuessle, Soheil Vahedi, Iulian Boiko have to leave (or are not permitted to compete) their future will be limited, and the Q Tour will be degraded to just a British amateur series. I’d imagine a wildcard place will be found for Boiko.

    • I truly don’t know what the answer is. It almost seems a shame the tour isn’t a bit bigger to accommodate all these people, but that appears to be the opposite of the most commonly heard suggestion, namely that the professional tour should be cut back to 80 or 64.

      • I would only cut the main tour to 80 if there is a proper, funded, sponsored and broadcasted 80 players secondary tour, with international line-up and played “internationally”. The main issue obviously is to make it sustainable and the first condition for that to happen is to get fans interested.

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