Here are WST reports on the first two days at the Q-School in Babngkok

Day 1

Thor Strikes On Day One

Malaysia’s Thor Chuan Leong came through with a 4-2 win over Thailand’s Pantakan Kamwiang on day one of Asia-Oceania Q School in Bangkok.

Click here for schedules and results

Thor was on the World Snooker Tour for six seasons after joining the circuit in 2014. However, he lost his professional status at the conclusion of the 19/20 campaign. He’s been to the last 32 of ranking events on four occasions, including the 2018 European Masters.

The 34-year-old top scored with a break of 71 in today’s win and now play’s India’s Himanshu Jain up next.

Pakistan’s Muhammad N. Akhtar made the first century break of the tournament, a run of exactly 100. However, he was still beaten 4-3 by former professional Kritsanut Lertsattaythorn.

Iran’s Siyavosh Mozayani whitewashed compatriot Mohammadreza Rafieyan 4-0. He now faces either Muhammad Asif or Zhong Wei Tan in the last 32.

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Day 2

Asia-Oceania Q School – Day Two Roundup

Thailand’s former professional Dechawat Poomjaeng secured a thrilling 4-3 win over Jeffrey Roda from the Philippines on day two of Asia-Oceania Q School in Bangkok.

Fan favourite Poomjaeng delighted the Crucible crowd with a run to the last 16 of the 2013 World Championship. However, he hasn’t been a professional since the 16/17 season. He faces fellow former professional Thor Chuan Leong up next in the last 16.

Pornpiya Kaosumran knocked in the highest break of the tournament so far, a run of 128, during his narrow 4-3 win over fellow Thai Wiphu Phuthisabodi. Kaosumran is up against Narongdat Takantong in the next round.

Kritsanut Lertsattayathorn came through a 4-3 victor against Iran’s Amir Sarkhosh. Next up he faces Poramin Danjirakjul.

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Click here for live scores and match schedule

I have to confess that I struggle to follow this competion despite Thailand’s snooker federation best efforts. They provide decent streaming, and their live scores are kept up-to-date but many matches are terribly slow going, low scoring. I’m expecting former pros to get through this and then, they will probably struggle badly on tour. They can’t have been playing much over the last couple of years.

Don’t get me wrong, regional Q-School are needed, but this one may have benefitted from being announced earlier. Also, the current circumstances – a resurgence of covid in Asia, and China reinstanciating strict travel restrictions – aren’t helping.

Also, that there was only one Chinese player in the draw and that he couldn’t make it is telling a story, although I’m not entirely which one at this stage…

Anyway… I hope that Dechawat Poomjaeng v Thor Chuan Leong will be streamed. I could be good, it could be amusing. It’s scheduled for the evening in Bangkog, afternoon in Europe.

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.

The first ever Asia-Oceania Q-School has started today in Bangkog.

The official site where you will find the players, the draw, the results and more is here

As scores are updated manually on the official site, they are not always up-to-date. However the organising team in THailand provides more up-to-date scores here

The Billiards Sports Association of Thailand has  a site  and a facebook page. They have already posted a lot of pictures there…

Some matches are streamed on the facebook page and, frankly, the quality of the stream was quite good when I watched it. Even on my big screen TV the image was sharp, and there was no lag. The commentary of course is in Thailandese.

The conditions looked slow and humid, as you would expect in Thailand, but otherwise quite good.

Unfortunately, Luo Honghao didn’t make it to the tournament. He had visa issues. Normally Chinese nationals can ask. and are granted a on-arrival visa at the custom in Thailand, but with Covid again a serious issue in China, Luo needed a special “sports visa”.  Going by what he posted on Chinese social media, this visa wasn’t granted and he’s unlikely to apply for another one in order to be able to play in the second event. The reasons for the refusal weren’t mentioned. It’s a big, big shame really.

As usual, snooker.org is following the action

I always feel that  round 3 is a pivotal moment at Q-school. Not sure why.

Yesterday we lost Martin O’Donnell, Rory Mcleod, Sean Maddockx and Gao Yang. There will be no immediate return on tour for them. Among the young promising players, we lost Ross Bulman, Stan Moody, Ben Mertens and  Niel Vincent.

Here is the report by WST:

Maflin Marches On

Norway’s Kurt Maflin booked his place in the penultimate day of Q School 2022, with a 4-1 defeat of Leone Crowley in event three in Sheffield.

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Maflin was competing in the quarter-finals of the World Championship just two years ago, but a slump in form has seen the 38-year-old drop off the circuit at the conclusion of the 21/22 campaign.

The heat is on now for Maflin, who must win his next three matches to earn an immediate return to the circuit next season. He lost in the last 16 of event two and crashed out in his opening match of event one.

Maflin composed a break of 73 in the first frame of his win today and now faces China’s Liu Hongyu in the last 32.

Germany’s Lukas Kleckers made a gutsy break of 62 to edge the final frame with Martin O’Donnell and emerge a 4-3 victor. He now plays Hamim Hussain.

Thailand’s Sunny Akani whitewashed Callum Beresford 4-0 to set up a meeting with Umut Dikme of Germany, while Ukrainian Iulian Boiko beat Billy Castle 4-2 and will now play George Pragnall.

The last four professional tour cards will go to the four semi-finalists in event three, which runs until Thursday.

The win over the more experienced Billy Castle is a very good one for Iulian Boiko. Iulian cme back from 2-1 down, winning a couple of close frames before clinching victory with a break of 87.

I watched the match between Ben Mertens and Steven Halworth. Steven payed very well actually. He didn’t make any break over 50, but controlled the table throughout the match, except in the one frame that Ben won with a beautiful 107. Ben is very good to watch when in a break, but needs to improve when it comes to tactical nous and shot selection. His current approach works well at amateur level, but will not do on the pro tour.

I also watched most of the Sean Maddockx v Zhao Jianbo match. Zhao won 4-1 and Sean made the only 50+ break in the only frame he won. Basically what I said about Ben above, also applies to Sean. The differences though are that Ben is 17, Sean is 20 and Ben has never been a pro, Sean has spent two years on the main tour. You would expect him to have learned something from that experience and to have made some changes to shot selection and general approch to the game.

We have two rounds on our plate today and many very good players still in the draw. Some sections are brutal. One in particular stands out: of Eden Sharav, Zhao Jianbo, Andrew Higginson and Steven Hallworth, only one will reach the last day!