The UK/Europe Q-School Event 1 and concluded this afternoon and the Asia-Oceania Q-School Event 1 will conclude tomorrow. After nearly a week of hard-fought competition, four players gained, or re-gained, a two years professional Tour card, and four others are one match away from joining them. The links will bring you to the detailed results on snooker.org.
Artemijs Zizins (17 years old, turning 18 on June, 6) – Latvia), Allan Taylor (39 years old – England), Haydon Pinhey (27 years old – England) and Wang Yuchen (26 years old – Hong Kong) qualified via the UK/Europe event. Gao Yang (19 years old – China), Lim Kok Leong (29 years old – Malaysia), Sunny Akani (28 years old – Thailand) and Ali Gharahgozlou (? – Iran) came through the Asia Oceania Q-School so far and will play the “telling” match tomorrow.
It’s an interesting group of laureates. From the eight only Allan Taylor was on tour last season. Haydon Pinhey, Lim Kok Leong and Ali Gharahgozlou have never been professionals before. As compared to previous editions, it’s a rather “young” group. as well. I couldn’t find Ali’s age, but from the other seven only Allan Taylor is over 30. Personally, I find this outcome quite satisfying: seven different nationalities and a majority of young players, but not children.
Personally, I am particularly happy to see Sunny Akani (hopefully) and Wang Yuchen getting back on tour.
Of course there were disappointments and heartbreaks. Iulian Boiko didn’t make it … he was beaten by Artemijs Zizins in round 3. I hope that, with Ken Doherty at his side he will be able to overcome the disappointment and stay positive. He’s had a lot to cope with over the last two years, on and off the table and he is still very young.
I would have loved to see Luo Hong Hao, the “virtuoso”, back on tour. He lost to Gao Yang in round 4. He’s only 24 and an interesting personality. He’s an artist and comes across as a free spirit. I like that.
Florian Nüßle was beaten in a decider in round 5 … He’s had his share of good runs ending in disappointment this season: he lost, in a decider in the SF of the 2024 European Championship, to Robbie Mc Guigan the eventual winner. He lost in the SF of the Q-Tour Global Play-off, to Duane Jones, the eventual winner. It’s just not quite happening for him.
I was disappointed that, other than On Yee, there was no woman in the draw. I have quite ambivalent feelings about the Women’s Tour being a qualifying route for the main tour. It does promote the women in snooker and has given them visibility but the level isn’t high enough. The women playing in that tour are not exposed to the kind of level required from professionals. As a result, those who qualified through that route didn’t perform well on the main tour … and that, in turn, gave ammunitions to those who see women as “inferior” and claim that none of them will ever succeed at professional snooker. Social media are full of such guys … alas.
We start it all again with “events 2” in a couple of days.
Meanwhile quite a number of top pros have been involved in exhibitions since the World Championship. I don’t remember we ever had so many going on at this time of the year. Maybe the changes in the players contract give the top players a bit more freedom than in the past.
About “exhibitions” and the so called “breakaway tour” there was an interesting interview with Kyren Wilson, our new World Champion. It is reported in the Finnish press: (automatic translation – highlights by me)
The snooker world champion’s gesture to a Finnish woman melted the hearts of the Helsinki audience – “The audience was amazing”
Kyren Wilson, who won the world championship at the beginning of May, organized a show at the invitational tournament in Helsinki’s Kulttuuritalo.
The biggest invitational tournament in Finnish snooker history started on Saturday in Helsinki’s Kulttuuritalo.
The 1,400-seat arena was packed to the brim when the Englishman Kyren Wilson, who was recently crowned as the snooker world champion, met the Welshman Ryan Day, who advanced to the 2nd round of the World Championship .
Seeing the snooker stars was a rare experience for many in the stands, which became a memorable one for one lucky person. Such a moment was seen in the stoppage of the match between Wilson and Day, when Wilson had decided the 4–3 victory.
When there were only a few balls left on the table, Wilson asked the Finnish woman sitting in the front row to stand next to the table and a moment later asked her to pocket the last black ball (video as the main image of the article).
Although the woman did not succeed in bagging, the audience rewarded Wilson’s gesture and the woman’s attempt with thunderous applause.
The audience was amazing, Wilson praised.
A new start from Finland
The 32-year-old Wilson won his first career world title at the Crucible Theater in Sheffield, England on May 6.
After that, Wilson had never played competitive snooker before the Helsinki tournament. The lack of play was visible at the beginning of the match on Saturday, but after three sets, Wilson bagged hitting streaks of 131, 118 and 85 points. Day’s best breaks were 95 and 77.
Wilson described the previous weeks as crazy.
The World Cup drug doesn’t seem to end, but something new comes every day. I was asked to present the World Cup trophy at the stadium of my favorite team, Chelsea, and I received an incredible reception at my home club and in the local pub.
– A party was also organized for me at a local theme park, where 1200 people arrived. This has been one rollercoaster – in a great way, Wilson said.
Amidst the responsibilities brought by the World Cup victory, snooker took a back seat for a while. Mestari said that he focused his energy on his family, which includes his wife and two children.
It has been a pleasure to take my children to school and to soccer tournaments. Do normal things sometimes.
Hot question about the future
Before and during the World Snooker tournament, there was a heated discussion in the sports circles about the current state of the professional tour.
According to rumors heard by Yle Urheilu from several sources, several top players in the sport have received an offer to play on a closed tour covering twenty players, whose prize pool for one season would be one hundred million euros.
For comparison: in the season that ended, the professional tour of 128 players managed by the umbrella organization World Snooker had less than 20 million euros in distribution.
I received an offer, but things have changed dramatically in a short time. As world champion, I want to be a good ambassador for snooker. I enjoy being announced on stage as world champion. I’m looking forward to the games on the familiar world tour next season as well, Wilson said.
Wilson dodged a direct question if he believes a closed tour ( Breakaway tour ) will happen.
I really don’t know the answer to this question. My life changed completely a couple of weeks ago. As crazy as it sounds, since then snooker has been the last thing on my mind before arriving in Helsinki.
A wish for Bottas
As for Finland and special wishes, Wilson had a direct answer ready: I want to have a beer with Valtteri Bottas .
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Perhaps the only thing of the breakaway tour is to free some spots for the young.
Not sure about that because, even if spots are free, there is no guarantee they will be filled by young players. There would probably be some kind of “selection competition” open to all.
The real disappointment today was Dylan Emery. He should stayed on tour – he was 4-0 up against Oliver Brown in the World Championship. Wang Yuchen is a steady player, and has tried very hard to get back on tour after going to college. The most intriguing qualifier is Artemijs Zizins, which is great for the game.
In Bangkok, Sunny Akani and Gao Yang are strong favourites, but anything can happen in a best-of-7 under this much pressure. The tables are playing slow, which has caught out a few.
I mentioned this previously but … I met Wang Yuchen when he was about 14 at an APTC in Yixing. He was part of a group of talented aspiring boys. The “star” of that group was Lyu Haotian. Wang was different. He was the only one speaking English. His father’s family is from Hong Kong. His father insisted that he completes his formal education in parallel with his snooker activities. He was extremely mature for his years.
Part of the problem for Wang Yuchen was that he was exactly the same age as Lyu Haotian, Zhao Xintong, Zhou Yuelong, Xu Si and now Huang Jiahao, with Yan Bingtao, Yuan Sijun, Luo Honghao just a little younger. That’s a lot of talent to face. I think Wang has done well just to keep going.
It’s great for Hong Kong snooker that he and Cheung Ka Wai have qualified, and Chang Yu Kiu also nearly made it through Q Tour. Mink’s wins in Landywood meant that Ng On Yee won’t be back on tour (unless she performs miracles in Q School 2).
Is that true? Ng won Landywood, and my memory suggests the two women at the top of the women’s ranking receive a tour card. Am I missing something?
Anyway, none of the women performs anywhere near the level required to break into the top 64 after two years (the jury may still be out on Bai Yulu). Even worse, judging after several rounds on the Main Tour, there seems no development over their stints. They were no closer regularly to beat at least the #65+ crowd at the end than they were at the beginning. Which really poses the question as to why they are doing it to themselves. The experience has to be highly unpleasant, and the prospects appear grim. Anyway, the same applies to a bunch of males who don’t have it, and who are to bounce back again, and again, and then again, until they finally give up with not that much to show for their efforts.
Okay, got it now. Only if the world woman’s champion is already on the main tour, a second tour card is awarded via the WWS ranking. My bad…
No… two cards are awarded, one to the World Champion, the other to the number one in their rankings, which works a bit differently from what happens on the main tour. It’s not about prize money, it’s a point system. As it happens it was enough for Mink to reach the QFs in this last comp to be number one. Therefore, although she was relegated from the main tour, she will be back on it immediately. The other tour card goes to Bai Yulu.
His father is still right, cost of living in HK is not low.
If Wang loses the spot one day and want to return, he needs a decent job to keep some time for training. (At least he has more choice – not forced to choose jobs which may damage the arm- if he has a higher qualification)
Of course his father was right and Wang is intelligent enough to understand that. From what I know he did finish college at least. But at the time, because he wasn’t able to dedicate himself full time to snooker, he wasn’t receiving the same level of support from CBSA as others did. For instance, I heard that Yan Bingtao left school at 10 to focus solely on snooker.
Most of the Chinese players left school very early anyway. I believe Fan Zhengyi never went to school at all. The academies provide some forms of academic education alongside snooker training. Following the Lyu Haotian situation, they even provide psychological training. In Wang Yuchen’s case, he switched allegiance to Hong Kong, and received some funding from them, as did Cheung Ka Wai. It’s an ongoing question whether they will be supported by HKSA for the next 2 years, given the funding cuts.
Also the horrid difficulty of China’s National College Entrance Examination contributed this. If a kid shows some talent being professional(not only snooker) and not good at academic, it is not uncommon to leave school early.
Happy about Sunny and very unhappy about Iulian Boiko.
I’m not surprised there were no more women in the QSchool other that On Yee. The other top women are on the main tour already. I was very hopeful when top women got tourcards, not about Evans who spent too much time on the women’s tour to lose competitiveness or will/ability to develop, but Mink. She spent two years on the main tour without a major impact. Now my only hope is Bai Yulu, otherwise I will start feeling that the detractors are correct. 😦
It’s a number game Csilla. Those women are the best … of a very small group in comparison of the number of boys/men who play. If we want to see “better” female snooker players, the first step is to get more girls playing … and for that to happen they need to feel welcome and comfortable in clubs. There is still a lot of work to be done for that to happen. Rebecca Kenna played in local leagues for a couple of years. She was a valued member of her team. But she gave up because there were fixtures where she wasn’t allowed to play as the hosting club refused to let a woman play in their club. That was putting her team in a difficult situation as she was one of the best in her club. Hannah Jones was once bullied and mocked whilst she was practicing in a club … by teenager boys slightly older than she was then. Her father intervened. He challenged the boys to take her at a frame of snooker. She beat each and everyone of them… but felt so unwelcome that she didn’t want to practice there anymore. The detractors are exactly those kind of people … and they are the problem, not the girls who prefer to turn to other sports or activities.
It will take a lot longer than just 4 years. But Bai Yulu spent years in the Dongguan Academy, competing with the likes of Jiang Jun, Ma Hailong, Gong Chenzhi and Gao Yang. If they can win matches at professional level, so can she.
I know and do agree that the situation for female players in Britain is horrible. No wonder the top women are Asian. I guess my idea was that those among them who reach the top are somehow already (self-)selected from a larger group of players. True, I might be wrong about it and Q-School is full of males who might have made it to the tour and left no impression till they got back there, it’s true too. I just desperately want a little bit of success for one of these top women on the tour.
And there is more… a lot of players were introduced to the game by their father, or a male member of the family. They took them to the club, or to an event. Or they got a mini snooker table for Christmas… How many girls are introduced to the snooker by their mother? How many will get a mini snooker table for Christmas? No many, if any at all. Certainly not 15/20 years ago. Don’t underestimate the cultural factor.