Stephen Lee turned 50 on Saturday, and yesterday, Sunday 13th of October 2024 his ban from the sport of snooker came to an end. Is he free to return to play? Not quite.
Stephen Lee turned 50 on Saturday, and he was able to celebrate the end of his 12-year ban from snooker for match fixing.
The former world number five was suspended in October of 2012 following reports of irregular betting patterns during a Premier League fixture with John Higgins.
A wider investigation followed before an independent tribunal found Lee guilty of fixing matches in 2008 and 2009, including a World Championship encounter at the Crucible Theatre.
The Englishman was handed a 12-year sentence in 2014, backdated to when his original suspension began two years earlier on his 38th birthday.
It was the most severe punishment handed to a player in the game’s history until last year’s Chinese match-fixing scandal saw Liang Wenbo and Li Hang given lifetime bans from the sport.
In theory, Lee is now free to return to competitive action from when his snooker ban ended on October 12th, 2024.
However, it’s unlikely that we’ll see him competing in any tournament sanctioned by or affiliated with the World Professional Billiard and Snooker Association (WPBSA) in the near future.
Lee owes the WPBSA £125,000 in legal fees related to the court cases and unsuccessful appeals from a decade ago.
When approached for comment, a spokesperson for the WPBSA told SnookerHQ.com: “Stephen Lee would need to reach a satisfactory agreement with the WPBSA over settlement of his costs before he could play.”
The unpaid fines will prevent Lee from participating on the Q Tour, Q School, and the WSF Championship – normal routes for amateur players to gain promotion back to the World Snooker Tour.
What has Stephen Lee said?
“I must get asked this weekly, daily, minutely,” Stephen Lee said about a possible comeback in 2022, as reported in The Mirror.
“I would like to say no, but I am still capable of playing. Let’s see what happens in two years. It’s not a no, and not a yes.”
“We can only just see what happens in a couple of years’ time. I have some exciting things coming up, and I’m also getting older.
“My eyes are getting worse, and I never had good eyes to start with. As you get older the determination and the fire goes.”
Yet it appears any of those small aspirations have since disappeared, with Lee confirming as much in a Facebook post in January this year.
“Not a chance of it my friend,” was Lee’s reply to a comment on the social media platform which encouraged him to complete the comeback.
“I struggle to break off nowadays. It’s down to my son now…”
Lee’s son Alfie is an aspiring amateur player who has competed in Q School and at the WSF Championship in 2023.
Stephen Lee after winning an APTC minor-ranking event in 2012. Photo credit: WST
What did Lee achieve in snooker?
When he was suspended in 2012, Stephen Lee was regarded as one of the best players in the world and had recently secured his fifth career ranking title.
The Englishman graduated to the pro tour in the same year as Ronnie O’Sullivan, John Higgins, and Mark Williams – the fabled Class of 1992.
He didn’t quite enjoy the same level of success as his contemporaries from that era, but his silky cue action was widely regarded as among the smoothest in history.
In addition to reaching the 2008 Masters final where he was denied Triple Crown glory by Mark Selby, Lee’s best finish at the World Championship was a semi-final appearance in 2003.
He won the Grand Prix twice (renamed the LG Cup in 2001), the Scottish Open, the Welsh Open, and the Players Tour Championship Grand Finals.
During the 2000/01 and 2003/04 snooker seasons, Lee was ranked as high as number five on the official world rankings list.
Why was Stephen Lee banned?
Lee had survived several investigations into suspicious betting patterns prior to the one that eventually banished him from the sport in 2014.
A tribunal ruled he deliberately lost matches against Ken Doherty, Neil Robertson, and Marco Fu at the 2008 Malta Cup.
He was also deemed to have agreed to lose the first frame against both Stephen Hendry and Mark King during matches played at the 2008 UK Championship.
Lee was additionally found guilty of influencing the outcome of matches against Mark Selby at the 2009 China Open and Ryan Day at the 2009 World Championship.
Since getting banned, the Trowbridge potter has had other run-ins with the law.
In 2014, Lee was fined by Swindon Magistrates’ Court for failing to deliver a cue he had sold online to the buyer.
Four years later, he appeared in court again for teaching snooker without a permit in Hong Kong.
For a period last year, the five-time tour title winner was one of the best potters on the planet, reclaiming his place in the top 10 as his smooth cue action helped rack up a string of impressive results.
But behind the scenes his world was unravelling, with a web of deceit finally exposed at a tribunal which heard he teamed up with his then manager, sponsor and a friend so they could profit from his cheating.
Lee, of Trowbridge, Wiltshire, was found guilty of deliberately throwing two matches at the 2008 Malta Cup and the opening frame of two games he went on to win at the UK Championship that year.
He agreed to lose by a particular score in another Malta Cup encounter, and pulled off the same trick in a match at both the 2009 China Open and World Championship.
If the offences had been committed more recently, he would have been given a mandatory life ban under a tougher disciplinary regime introduced after Barry Hearn took over as boss of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA).
Because his case has been heard under the rules as they stood when the matches took place, a lifetime suspension is not guaranteed, although the option will be available when his sentence is considered on 24 September.
Hearn maintains there is no place for cheats in the game, and he set up a dedicated integrity unit – headed by former detective chief superintendent Nigel Mawer, an expert in tackling sport match-fixing.
They are aware that any event with only two outcomes (a winner and loser) is potentially open to those who want to profit from wrongdoing via inside information.
Every match is monitored for unusual betting patterns on a range of markets, from frame winners to correct scores, with alarm bells sounded by punters placing unusually large wagers or a big-staking new account holder focused on one particular player.
“Match fixing is a growing concern, indeed a cancer in many sports, and must be eradicated,” said Adam Lewis QC, chairman of the independent tribunal which heard the Lee case over three days in Bristol.
World champion Ronnie O’Sullivan’s claim after the verdict that he has heard of other players throwing matches echoes comments that have floated around snooker for years.
If a player is willing to deliberately lose a frame or match, he can do so – veiling the act under a cloak of excuses, which could range from a mis-hit shot, pressure, nerves or being out of form.
Lee’s downfall shows this remains possible, whatever the safeguards, but also that those who cheat risk their careers.
While online gambling, and the ability to ‘lay’ or back against a particular outcome, has opened up the scope for more fixing, the trail of evidence from betting accounts, computers and phone calls can expose the cheat.
Whereas criminal cases, with the evidential ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ standard, are harder to prove, sport governing bodies can successfully bring cases within their own rules using the civil standard of proof – ‘the balance of probabilities’.
This is what did for Lee. He had been arrested by West Midlands Police in 2010 over the allegations, but the Crown Prosecution Service decided to drop the charges in October 2012.
When fresh suspicions surrounded a Premier League game against John Higgins, which Lee lost 4-2 and was not pursued to a hearing, World Snooker suspended the Wiltshire player and opened its own investigation.
The tribunal report into the Lee case said bets were placed by three groups of people, including his then sponsor Paul Jones – an independent financial adviser trading as Prosperity from Stourbridge in the West Midlands – who opened multiple betting accounts with various associates.
The second group were found to have been co-ordinated by his then manager Neil Clague, based on the Isle of Man, who placed almost identical bets. And the third was a friend called Ian MacDougall, from his hometown of Trowbridge.
They bet in unusually high amounts, on the internet and with high street bookmakers.
“Lee was in contact with the groups in the lead-up to the matches in question and afterwards,” said a WPBSA statement.
“In one case the person collected the successful bet and placed half of the winnings into Lee’s wife’s bank account.
“The total amount bet on these matches was in excess of £111,000 leading to winnings of over £97,000 for the persons placing the bets. It is not clear how much Lee benefited from their activity.”
Lee will have the chance to put forward mitigation, and can cite the fact he has been suspended for a year already and the allegations have hung over him since early 2010.
He has been in trouble before – testing positive for cannabis in 2001 after a routine drugs test at the Champions Cup in Brighton – although his father insisted it was the result of him being in a room with someone smoking the drug.
However, these fresh findings bring far more serious consequences and come just after a time when his career was on the up again.
He rose to fifth in the world from a ranking of 18 at the start of the 2011-12 season, and over two years pocketed a total of more than £200,000 in prize money from tour events alone.
Only last March, he won his first ranking tournament for six years, whitewashing then world champion Neil Robertson 4-0 to win the Players Tour Championship Grand Finals in Galway.
“It’s a cracking feeling. It makes all the hard work and travelling worthwhile,” said Lee at the time.
But despite making well over £2m from tournaments during his career, he was in financial trouble. The father-of-four, who married his long-time partner Laura in Florida in 2005, faced county court judgements for unpaid bills.
His camp protested innocence throughout and claimed the suspension effectively made him guilty before any evidence had been fully examined.
“He has worked incredibly hard. He is sick of all this stuff getting thrown at him and feels there are doubts about him every time he misses a ball,” said his most recent manager Adam Quigley around the time of his suspension.
Supporters bemoaned the length of time it took to bring the case, but the process was not helped by the player changing his lawyer three times.
Quite why he was in financial turmoil, or exactly what motivated his money-making misdemeanours, has not been made clear. When asked for his side of the story, he wanted to be paid for it.
During his suspension, which applies to tournaments sanctioned by World Snooker, he has still been playing the game for money at other events and exhibition matches.
In May, Lee – who will be 39 next month, a year to the day from his suspension – won the RKG Masters pro-am tournament in India, with his run including a 7-1 defeat of Michael Holt in the semi-finals.
But after 21 years as a professional, the chance of him adding to his tour titles now looks remote.
I was taking pictures at that fateful premier league match that triggered the whole investigation and, eventually, the ban. Although this match was not “retained” in the investigation eventually, there were no doubts in my mind, nor in Clive Everton’s1 mind that something was seriously amiss. Yet, bizarrely, when I watched it back on YouTube years later it wasn’t that obvious on the TV images. But it definitely was there and then in the arena. John Higgins who was his opponent must have sensed it as well. Judd Trump who was watching on TV called it on Twitter. The last minutes of the last frame in particular featured some bizarre shot selections and misses.
Anyway you can judge by yourself … the end of the match is still on YouTube
Why would Stephen Lee, who was earning decently from his snooker, need so much money? I don’t have an answer to that. There were rumours that he and his wife were drug addicts but that were rumours nothing more. It is true that Lee was prone to sweating profusely2 which can possibly be a symptom of withdrawal, but it could have a lot different causes of course. He wasn’t a particularly fit guy for a start…
Many want to see him back on tour. I’m not one of them.
Zhao was the dominant player throughout the weekend at the Snookerhallen in the Swedish capital as he won eight matches and compiled eight century breaks, including the historic maximum, en route to the title.
The victory secures the 27-year-old Chinese cueist a spot at the 2024/25 Q Tour Global play-offs next year, where three World Snooker Tour (WST) two-year tour cards will be on offer.
As a non-seeded player, Zhao began the event on the Friday and he completed routine 3-0 wins against Belgium’s Daan Leyssen and Poland’s Michal Kotiuk to book his place in Saturday’s last 64 stage.
There he faced 14-year-old Shaun Liu from Hong Kong China, who gave the former UK champion a stern test early on in the contest – levelling the game at 1-1 with a half-century before taking frame three down to the final black.
Zhao was able to pot the decisive black to restore his lead before moving one away from victory in the best-of-seven frame contest at 3-1.
Frame five saw a moment of history on the Q Tour as the man from China compiled a magical maximum break, the first ever to be achieved on the Q Tour, before receiving rapturous applause from the watching audience at the Snookerhallen venue.
The powerful scoring continued from Zhao in the last 32, as he scored breaks of 111, 128 and 80 to defeat Luke Pinches confirm his place in the final day of a Q Tour event for the first time.
The 27-year-old began the final day in style with another century, this time a 118, as he overcame former professional Peter Lines 4-1 in their first competitive meeting since the last 16 of the 2021 UK Championship.
Whitewash victories over France’s Nicolas Mortreux and Poland’s Mateusz Baranowski followed to set up a final meeting with Craig Steadman, who defeated Alfie Davies, Peter Devlin and Steven Hallworth on the final day to reach the title match.
It was Steadman who had defeated Zhao 4-3 in the last 64 stage of the previous Q Tour Europe event in Sofia, Bulgaria last month and he once again provided the Chinese cueist with his toughest test of the tournament.
Trailing 2-0 after Zhao opened the match with a break of 112, Steadman hit back to restore party at 2-2 in a race to four.
A stunning break of 136, Zhao’s eighth century break of the event, moved him one frame away from the title but Steadman once again hit back with a 93 to force a final frame decider.
Ultimately, however, it was deservedly Zhao’s weekend as he wrapped up the victory with a break of 82.
Following his victory, Zhao said: “Coming to Sweden, I just wanted to get used to this feeling of playing in tournaments again. I wasn’t aiming to be the champion but I just wanted to get back to playing competitively again.
“I haven’t changed my practice schedule, I still practice as usual and play against professionals. I think my scoring in the last few days is within my capability and I know I can score well.”
Looking ahead, Zhao said: “I will select which events I want to play in on the Q Tour but right now it is all about getting that tournament feeling and I am pleased to be getting that feeling back.”
Zhao Xintong only returned to competitive snooker very recently. The first WPBSA event he played in after his ban ended was the 2024 Q-Tour Event 2. In that event, he had played three matches, losing to Craig Steadman in the last 64. Craig of course is a very experienced former professional and Zhao, certainly, wasn’t match sharp. Obviously he has been working hard since and this is the result.
Not everybody is happy to see Zhao back, but I am. Everybody makes mistakes and we have to remember that Zhao was not found guilty of match fixing. What he was found guilty of was to not report the match fixing schemes he was aware of and to bet on snooker. Now regarding the first of those two breaches of his contract, we have to consider two things. The first is that the younger players really felt threatened by Liang Wenbo and Li Hang. They were genuinely scared of them. Also, as Lewis has mentioned many times in the past, all those young players know each other since childhood. Because of the “one child per family” rule in operation in China back then, they are all “only children”, they have no siblings. Their childhood friends therefore are the closest they have to a brother or a sister. The “snooker kids” he grew up with are effectively his brothers. Therefore having to “grass on them” was a big no-no.
I’ m wishing Zhao the best and I hope to see him back on the main tour next season … that’s where he belongs. The tour needs players like him, who offer the fans an attractive brand of snooker and play with a smile on their face.
Congratulations Zhao and good luck for the future
Mink has won the 2024 Women Snooker Australian Open
World number one Mink Nutcharut has defeated Ng On Yee 4-3 following a thrilling final match to win the 2024 Australian Women’s Snooker Open for a second time at Mounties, Sydney.
Five years on from claiming her first ever title on the World Women’s Snooker (WWS) Tour, Mink repeated her success against friend and rival Ng with a dramatic black ball success to lift her first crown since the Belgian Open back in January.
Her eighth success overall, the victory sees the Thai star join Ng as a multiple Australian Open champion and consolidate her position at the top of the world rankings.
It was to prove a hard fought final day as having secured her place in the semi-finals with wins against Dianne Spring and Jessica Woods following the group stages, Mink was to face a stern test from Mongolia’s Narantuya Bayarsaikhan in the last four.
The world number 19 – who was competing in a ranking semi-final for the first time having defeated Yee Ting Cheung 3-2 in the quarter-finals – would lead Mink throughout their contest and was one ball away from securing a maiden final in the sixth frame.
Mink, however, was able to win a black-ball battle to force a last frame decider, during which she produced her best snooker of the match to ultimately prevail and reach her first final of the season.
There she would face world number two Ng On Yee, who had made serene progress to the final without the loss of a single frame and had notably top scored with a stunning break of 133 during the round robin group stages against Australia’s Christine Firth.
The title match would prove to be another match full of drama as the first four frames were shared, Mink scoring breaks of 50 and 43, with Ng compiling runs of 52 and 57 during the second frame.
From that point on the final would become a tense affair as both players saw the winning line, Mink first moving to within one of victory by winning a 50 minute long fifth frame, before Ng returned the favour in frame six to force a final frame decider.
Both players would ultimately have their chances, Ng unfortunate to pot a red from the blue during a composed first scoring visit, before the contest eventually came down to the final black to decide the champion. While both players would have opportunities, it was Mink who would sink the winning ball to seal her second victory in Australia and lift the Clive Edwards Memorial Cup.
The dramatic final was a fitting end to a week to remember in Sydney which saw a record 27 entries contest the main title at Mounties. As well as victory for top ranked Mink, the event also saw notable runs for Narantuya Bayarsaikhan and Thailand’s Narucha Phoemphul, who both reached their maiden ranking event semi-finals, with several further players also breaking new ground at the tournament.
The Challenge Cup tournament for players who did not reach the quarter-finals saw Australia’s Kathy Blunden claim victory with a 2-0 success against China’s Shuangyu Jia.
World Women’s Snooker would like to thank everyone who contributed to another hugely successful event. This includes our partners at the Australian Billiards and Snooker Council, led by President Alex Render, Tournament Director Frank Dewens and Head of Referees Gary Knight, as well as our host Mounties and event sponsor The Snooker Shop.
The 2024/25 season continues with the Women’s Snooker Masters from 22-24 November 2024 at Frames Sports Bar, Couldson, England. Enter now via WPBSA SnookerScores.
Andres Petrov defeated Ryan Thomerson 4-3 in a dramatic final at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds to win the first WPBSA Q Tour Europe event of the 2024/25 season.
The Estonian cueist came through a record-breaking Q Tour field in West Yorkshire to secure the title and take an early lead in the Q Tour Europe ranking list after the first of seven events to be held across the continent.
Petrov, who made history in 2022 by winning the EBSA European Championship to become his country’s first ever professional, showed his determination on the final day by coming from 3-1 behind in both the quarter and semi-finals before firing in two century breaks in a final which also went down to the wire.
A total of 154 cueists, a new record for a Q Tour event, embarked on the famous Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds as the first two days saw 106 players battle it out to join the 48 seeded competitors in the last 64 stage on the Saturday.
A number of notable names fell during a high-quality first two days, including recent former professionals Adam Duffy, Rebecca Kenna and Victor Sarkis.
Meanwhile, 17-year-old Scot Jack Borwick made headlines by compiling a stunning tournament high break of 139 in a 3-0 victory over Daniel Bagley, before following this up with a 3-1 win against former professional Kuldesh Johal to make it to the last 64 – ultimately succumbing to the experienced Craig Steadman at this stage.
As one of the seeded competitors, eventual champion Petrov entered the fray on the Saturday and back-to-back 4-2 wins over Rodions Judins and Halim Hussain saw the Estonian book his place in the final day.
A relatively comfortable 4-1 victory over Hamim Hussain, the brother of Halim, put Petrov into the quarter-finals where he would face 48-year-old Simon Bedford on the Northern Snooker Centre’s main table.
Despite a break of 61 in the third frame, Petrov found himself 3-1 down and on the brink of defeat to Bedford in the last eight.
Success on a respotted black in frame five saw the Estonian reduce his deficit to one and, from here, Petrov showed his battling qualities to earn the victory in a deciding frame.
Petrov would need to call upon these qualities once more in the semi-finals against Simon Blackwell, as the Englishman charged into a 3-1 lead with back-to-back half centuries. Again, however, Petrov refused to accept defeat and forced a decider by taking a dramatic sixth frame on the final black before getting over the line in the seventh by a 71-0 scoreline.
This set up a title match contest with Australia’s Ryan Thomerson, who had similarly been relegated from the main tour at the end of the last season, after he had defeated Ryan Davies 4-1 in the semi-finals.
Having started on the Thursday, Thomerson had impressively advanced through eight rounds to reach the final with notable victories over former professionals Harvey Chandler, James Cahill and Steven Hallworth.
But it looked to be Petrov’s day when the man known as ‘The Tallinn Lamborghini’ raced into a 3-0 lead with breaks of 121, 90, 55 and 51 to move just one frame away from lifting the title.
Thomerson had already proved to be a fighter across the weekend, coming from 3-1 down to earn victories over both Chandler and Hallworth en route to the final, and after taking the fourth frame on the last black he then compiled a break of 72 to reduce his deficit to just a single frame.
In frame six, Petrov moved 62-0 ahead and looked certain to get over the line but a steely clearance of 64 from Thomerson saw him dramatically force a decider having trailed 0-3.
The man from Estonia saved perhaps his most majestic break of the weekend for the most important moment as he compiled an outstanding clearance of 119, his second century of the final, to win the title.
Petrov was visibly emotional following the victory having played 26 out of a possible 28 frames on a final day full of drama.
The tournament success means that Petrov makes the perfect start as he aims to make an instant return to the World Snooker Tour (WST) with the top ranked player at the conclusion of the campaign earning an outright two-year tour card.
On Yee Ng produced a stunning performance over the week-end to win the 2024 Women Snooker US Open Championship. Mind you… she didn’t lose a single frame all week-end and made 7 breaks over 50 during the event.
Hong Kong China’s Ng On Yee has defeated Anupama Ramachandran 4-0 to complete a dominant performance at the WineCellars.com US Women’s Snooker Open and earn her 21st ranking event title at Ox Billiards, Seattle.
The victory sees the world number two ranked player continue her rich vein of form on the World Women’s Snooker Tour, which has seen her lift titles in Albania, the UK and now the United States during 2024.
It was a particularly impressive showing throughout the three day event as she did not drop a single frame throughout, matching her feat at the 2018 World Championship. She also compiled the four highest breaks of the competition, highlighted by a run of 90 during the round robin stages.
Having seen off Frances Tso and Tessa Davidson in the knockout rounds to reach her sixth final from the last eight events, Ng would face India’s Anupama Ramachandran, who enjoyed a breakthrough event in Seattle.
The 22-year-old notably ended the title defence of Mink Nutcharut with a deciding frame win at the quarter-final stage, before toppling 2022 runner-up Rebecca Kenna to reach her first ranking final on Sunday.
The final would prove a step too far, however, as three-time world champion Ng dominated from the outset. Breaks of 52, 43 and a further 43 propelled her to a 2-0 lead, before a sublime 73 clearance took her to within one of the title. Ramachandran would have a chance in the fourth frame, but a further clearance of 83 would seal the match and the title for Ng, who finished the match with a pot success of 95%.
Side Tournaments
In the Seniors side-tournament it was England’s Tessa Davidson who won her 11th crown since her bow in the over-40s category in January 2022 to consolidate her position at the head of the Seniors rankings.
The 55-year-old defeated Tour debutant Kara Cox in the semi-finals, before seeing off Canadian veteran Maryann McConnell 2-0 to seal the title and cap a successful week which also saw her reach the semi-finals of a main ranking tournament for the first time since the 1999 British Open.
There was also consolation for McConnell in the Challenge Cup tournament for players who did not reach the quarter-finals of the main event. The 74-year-old won a close contest 2-1 against home player Kaarin Lysen to take home the winning trophy.
World Women’s Snooker would like to thank everyone who contributed to another hugely successful US Women’s Snooker Open, including title sponsors WineCellars.com, our hosts at Ox Billiards and of course the players and officials without whom the event would not have been possible.
The 2024/25 season continues with the return of the Taom UK Women’s Snooker Championship from 6-8 September 2024 at the Northern Snooker Centre, Leeds, England.
The Ox Billiards in Seattle is an beautiful club, run by passionate and very welcoming people. The coverage has been excellent. Table one was streamed throughout and you can watch the action again on the club’s YouTube page.
I have no doubts that On Yee wants to get back on the main tour and wants to give a better account of herself as well now that she has a better understanding of the Tour and what it takes to succeed on it.
Six Champions Crowned at Shanghai Disability Snooker Invitational
Six champions from three different nations won titles at the second staging of the WDBS Shanghai Disability Snooker Invitational in Shanghai, China last weekend.
A combination of cueists from China and international invitees made up a field of 31 players who competed across six classification groups at the two-day event.
The tournament was preceded by a special welcome banquet at the Steel Convention & Expo Centre where the event was formally opened by Miss Xue Sasa, Vice Governor of the Baoshan District, alongside key officials from the Shanghai and Baoshan District government and the Shanghai Billiards and Snooker Association.
Among those in attendance at the formal opening of the event were WPBSA Chairman Jason Ferguson, who delivered a keynote speech, as well as former world champions Stephen Hendry and John Higgins.
On the baize, it was Thailand who saw the most success as their cueists picked up the gold medal in three of the six competitions held across the weekend.
There was success for a duo of 2023 World Abilitysport Games bronze medalists in Group’s 1 and 2 as Numpol Thongpusawan and Surasit Loisaratrakul overcame Gary Swift and Tony Southern to secure the title and gain revenge on the Englishmen, who had both defeated them in the semi-finals of the Games back in December.
Boonmark Voranipit made it a hat-trick of gold medals for Thailand by defeating England’s David Church 2-0 in the final of Group 4 – bouncing back from defeat to Church in the initial group phase to earn the title.
Poland’s Adam Wilk picked up the sole gold medal for a European cueist as he beat Hong Kong China’s Andy Lam in a tense deciding frame of the Group 3 final, while there were titles from two Chinese players as Lu Yun and Yang Junhui defeated fellow countrymen Xue Wen and Mo Quanhu on home soil to win the gold in Group’s 5 and 6.
WDBS would like to thank the Shanghai Disabled Persons’ Federation, Baoshan District, Shanghai Sports Federation, Shanghai Billiards Association, Baoshan Disabled Persons’ Federation, Baoshan Sports Association, Guizhou Weboo Sports Co., Ltd, Lushan Hengkang Slate Co., Ltd and all the co-organisers for their support with the 2nd Shanghai Disability Invitational.
Make sure you have a look at the gallery, and, if some day you have the opportunity to attend one of those WDBS events, please do. You won’t regret it. Those gals and guys are amazing and so is the creativity they show in seeking and finding solutions and implements that help them overcome their disabilities.
Champions were crowned across four classification groups last weekend as the new WDBS season got underway with the second edition of the German Open in Rüsselsheim, Germany.
A total of 21 players competed in the event at SC Breakers in Rüsselsheim, including a record five German cueists, as three reigning champions defended their crowns while there was a first time winner of the German Open in the merged Group 6-8 competition.
On the Saturday morning, WDBS was delighted to welcome special guests Rouven Czylok (President of Billiardsport in Hessen), Annette Tettenborn (Rüsselsheim Head of Sports and Exercise) and Patrick Burghardt (Mayor of Rüsselsheim) to the WDBS German Open.
Germany’s Hannes Hermsdorf dropped just a single frame across seven matches as he claimed the Group 3 title on home soil for the second consecutive year.
Six competitors entered the Group 3 competition as the world’s top three (Kal Mattu, Joe Hardstaff and Kit Kennedy) were joined by group debutant Peter Hull as well as Hermsdorf and 89-year-old Cezar Pereira Vaz from the host nation.
Both Hermsdorf and Hull made impressive starts to the season with four straight victories to secure qualification for the knockout stages, before the German player overcame his English opponent 2-0 in their final group stage match to take top spot.
On the final day, Hermsdorf whitewashed Hardstaff to book his place in the final where he would once again face Hull after the Englishman battled past world number one Mattu 3-1 in the last four.
The 31-year-old German moved within one of the title by taking the first two frames of the best-of-five contest. Hull wasn’t going down without a fight, however, and took the third on a respotted black to reduce the deficit.
Ultimately, however, Hermsdorf was too strong on the table as he won the fourth frame by a 59-15 scoreline to win the German Open title for the second time.
David Church defeated Nigel Brasier 5-2 in the Group 4 final in Rüsselsheim to defend the title he won last year.
For Church, who recently travelled to China to compete in the Shanghai Disability Snooker Invitational, it marked a first ranking event title since last year’s German Open as the world number three dominated the group.
A trio of whitewash victories over Steve Cartwright, Andy Johnson and Brasier in the initial group phase, which also saw him make the weekend’s overall highest break of 63, meant Church booked his place in the title match.
There, he would meet Brasier, who had earned his place in a second consecutive ranking event final with impressive 3-0 wins over Johnson and Cartwright.
Despite losing 3-0 to Church on the previous day, Brasier made a strong start to the best-of-nine frame final as he moved into a 2-1 lead.
Church was able to take the fourth to restore parity heading into the mid-session interval before finding his form at the perfect time after the break to win three consecutive frames and complete the defence of his German Open title.
Dave Bolton won his seventh WDBS title but was forced to battle to defend his German Open crown in Rüsselsheim.
Bolton, world number two Dalton Lawrence and Belgian Open finalist Dave Waller were joined in Group 5 by German WDBS debutants Christian Hirth and Michael Becher.
The two home nation cueists made dream starts to life on the WDBS tour with victories over Waller and Lawrence respectively and both were able to secure their place in the semi-finals at their maiden event.
Hirth impressively topped the group stage with one of the surprise results of the weekend as he inflicted only a second ever defeat in a WDBS ranking event on Group 5’s top ranked player Bolton.
After losing the first frame of a semi-final contest against Becher, Bolton found his form and fired in breaks of 51, 44, 40 and 33 to complete a 3-1 victory and book his place in the final.
There, he looked certain to face a rematch against Hirth as the German moved into a 2-0 lead over Lawrence in their last four. However, the English two-time ranking event winner battled back to force a decider before taking the match on the final ball.
Lawrence’s battling qualities continued to show in the title match as, despite breaks of 42 and 30 from Bolton, he was able share the first four frames and force another match to a decider.
This time, however, Bolton proved too strong when it mattered as he took the decider by a scoreline of 73-23 to successfully defend his German Open crown.
Mike Gillespie defeated Ronnie Allen 3-0 in the Group 6-8 final to win the German Open for the first time in his career.
Due to entry numbers, the Group 6, 7 and 8 classification groups were combined into a single event of six cueists and it was two competitors from the visual Group 7 that reached the title match.
Group 7’s world number one Gillespie and 80-year-old Welshman Allen were the dominant players in the initial group phase, both earning whitewash victories in four matches before Gillespie overcame his Welsh opponent in their group stage meeting.
Group 6B cueists Oliver Hanson and Lee Hague completed the semi-final line-up but Gillespie and Allen proved too strong in Sunday’s knockout stages as they set up a final meeting with 3-0 and 3-1 victories respectively.
The 63-year-old Englishman continued his fine form when it mattered most as he impressively secured a 3-0 victory in the final to win the German Open title without dropping a single frame across the weekend.
Dave Waller bounced back from a disappointing start to the weekend to claim Challenge Cup glory at the German Open.
The Challenge Cup event sees competitors who do not qualify for Sunday’s knockout stages compete for the title and Group 5’s Waller overcame Kit Kennedy and German debutant Dominik Dobrowolski to reach the final.
There, he would face Blake Munton from Group 8 after the 28-year-old Englishman defeated Steve Cartwright 2-1 in the semi-finals.
The hard fought best-of-three frame final went all the way but it was Waller who won the deciding frame to win his first title on the WDBS tour.
WDBS would like to thank everyone at SC Breakers and all the players, referees and officials who helped to make the 2024 German Open a success.
The tour continues next month with The Cube UK Disability Championship at Barratts in Northampton. Enter now.
Calabrese arrived as the man in form having won the previous Q Tour event and finishing top of the series ranking list in the previous season.
He began his tournament with a 3-0 victory over Paul Balzer before showing stunning form to defeat Robin Beggs 3-0 with back-to-back century breaks of 106 and 102.
The Australian cueist was forced to battle through two deciding frames against Ian Barber and Paul Norris to reach the semi-finals and then overcame Chi Kin Yueng with a whitewash win to book his place in the title match.
There he would face Kerde, who had beaten Justin Sajich, Gary Nunn, Shaun Dalitz, Xavier Daw and finally Steve Mifsud in a deciding frame to set up a meeting with Calabrese.
Breaks of 78 and 56 helped Calabrese storm into a 3-0 lead and move one frame away from the title, but Kerde battled back to take the next two and reduce his deficit to just a single frame.
It was too little too late for Kerde, however, as Calabrese was able to get over the line in the sixth frame and secure more Q Tour glory.
The WPBSA Q Tour Asia-Pacific series continues in September with Event 3 in Auckland, New Zealand.
Snooker is mourning one of his greatest champions in Ray Reardon who passed away yesterday, aged 91. Ray had a profound impact on the sport and inspired many snooker players, in Wales and well beyond. He was a mentor to Ronnie during some of the hardest times in his life and career. Ray helped him to turn his life around and win the 2004 World Championship.
I had the pleasure to meet Ray, albeit only briefly, at a Snooker Legends Exhibition nearly 10 years ago. Jason Francis had invited him without telling the players involved in the exhibition. I will always remember Ronnie’s joy when he found out that Ray was in the house. They embraced, laughed and chatted, clearly delighted to be together if only for a few hours. Ray was already an old man, but he had the wits, and the laugher of a young one! He also had an immense “presence” without saying or doing anything special.
My toughs are with his family and many friends in these difficult times. May he rest in peace.
Ray Reardon, widely regarded as one of the greatest snooker players ever and a six-time World Champion, has died at the age of 91.
Welshman Reardon, who dominated the World Championship in the 1970s in a similar manner to Steve Davis in the 1980s and Stephen Hendry in the 1990s, passed away on Friday night after a battle with cancer, his wife Carol confirmed.
Nicknamed ‘Dracula’ due to his widow’s peak hairstyle, he was one of the most popular and charismatic figures of his era, loved by millions of fans for his brilliance on the table and good humour off it.
He was still playing snooker in recent months, and remarkably made a century break last November, a few weeks after his 91st birthday.
Leading the tributes, three-time Crucible king Mark Williams said: “Ray is one of the best sports people ever from Wales and the best snooker player. He’s one of the reasons why a lot of us started playing. He put snooker on the map, alongside Alex Higgins, Jimmy White and Steve Davis. Anyone playing now owes them a lot because they brought popularity to the game. He is a real inspiration.”
Reardon was born in 1932 in Tredegar and by the age of ten he was a keen snooker and billiards player. At 14, he followed his father’s footsteps and joined the mining community at Ty Trist Colliery. He wore cotton gloves, and while older men laughed at the habit, he was able to protect his hands enough to continue his hobby on the baize.
In 1957, after his family had moved to Stoke-on-Trent, Reardon was lucky to survive the collapse of a mine while he was working deep underground. He was buried in rubble for three hours, barely able to breathe. “I couldn’t move a finger,” he later told Michael Parkinson in a BBC interview. “It was amazing that with all the rubble and rock I was under, air still gets through. You have to keep perfectly still and not struggle, so I played thousands of games of marbles with my brother in my mind, until they came to my rescue.”
Soon afterwards, Reardon left the mines and became a police officer. During his seven years walking the beat around Stoke he won two awards for bravery – one for climbing across roofs to catch a robber, and one for approaching a man with a loaded shotgun in a crowded town centre and, in his usual calm manner, talking him out of using it.
Meanwhile on the table, Reardon’s reputation as one of the best amateur players in the UK was building. He won the Welsh Amateur Championship every year from 1950 to 1955, and the English equivalent for the first time in 1964, beating John Spencer in the final. In 1967, at the age of 35, he took the decision to quit policing and try his hand at professional snooker.
His timing was near-perfect, as in 1969 the BBC broadcast Pot Black for the first time, finding snooker an ideal showcase for the advent of colour television. This was a key moment in the sport’s history as, within a decade, it led to extensive live coverage of snooker on the BBC and the boom in popularity. Reardon was the first Pot Black champion, beating Spencer in the one-frame final, and won it again in 1979.
His first World Championship appearance in 1969 ended with a 25-24 defeat against Fred Davis in the quarter-finals, but a year later Reardon was holding the famous trophy for the first time. At the Victoria Hall in London, he beat John Pulman 37-33 in the final. That was the beginning of his dominant spell, as he went on to capture the world title in 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976 and 1978.
The last of those six victories was arguably Reardon’s greatest triumph as, at the age of 45, it made him the oldest World Champion, a record only beaten in 2022 by a 46-year-old Ronnie O’Sullivan. It was also Reardon’s only success at the Crucible, where the Championship had moved in 1977. He beat Perrie Mans 25-18 in the final and his modern-day record of six titles was not matched until Steve Davis reached that tally in 1989. Reardon reached one more Crucible final in 1982 when, age 49, he was beaten by Alex Higgins 18-15.
Higgins and Spencer were Reardon’s chief rivals for most of his hey-day, but he was without question the outstanding player of his era. Outside the World Championship, he won 16 other professional tournaments including the 1976 Masters. His highest break in competition was 146, made during the 1972 Park Drive event. In 1975 when the world rankings were conceived he was the first number one, and held that status until 1981, and then again during the 1982-83 season.
He remains the oldest winner of a ranking title, having beaten Jimmy White in the final of the 1982 Professional Players Tournament at the age of 50. A few months later he beat White again to win the 1983 International Masters, his last title.
He was ranked among the top 16 until 1987 and made his last Crucible appearance in the same year, losing in the last 16 to Steve Davis. Reardon retired in 1991 after losing to Jason Prince in the first qualifying round of the World Championship.
Though his peak as player came before the 1980s, Reardon’s fame grew in that decade as snooker became the most popular sport in Britain. He regularly appeared on TV shows such as A Question of Sport, Paul Daniels Magic Show and Big Break. Alongside Davis, White, Higgins, Cliff Thorburn and Dennis Taylor, he was a central character in the game described by Barry Hearn as ‘Dallas with balls.’ After retirement, he was in the public eye less, though he continued to play on the exhibition circuit.
He was always renowned as a great tactical player – indeed Davis learned much from Reardon during his early career in the late 1970s. In 2004, Reardon mentored Ronnie O’Sullivan, helping the Rocket to add strategic nous to his formidable break-building. The result was a Crucible title, and O’Sullivan always references Reardon as one of his great influences and friends. Shaun Murphy used one of Reardon’s cues to win the 2005 World Championship and received guidance from him in 2007.
Reardon was awarded the MBE 1985. He was inducted into the snooker Hall of Fame in 2011, and each year the winner of the Welsh Open is presented with the Ray Reardon Trophy. Throughout the snooker family, he was much loved and highly respected.
The father of two, who married his second wife Carol in 1987, lived for over 40 years in Devon, an area he had got to know through playing exhibitions. After retirement he continued to play snooker socially, as well as golf, becoming President of Churston Golf Club. In 2019 he survived a pulmonary embolism, and continued to approach life with enthusiasm.
In August 2023, in one of his last interviews, Reardon told David Hendon: “I still enjoy playing snooker. Some days you are in a little world of your own, you can pot anything and nothing distracts you. It’s fantastic, magic.”
How ‘Dracula’ the ex-miner became the snooker world’s best
20 July 2024
Ray Reardon was the first Welsh player to win the world title, with compatriots Terry Griffiths and Mark Williams subsequently lifting the trophy – Getty Images
Ray Reardon, who has died aged 91, dominated the sport of snooker for the best part of a decade as he won six world titles between 1970 and 1978.
The popular Welshman, who was nicknamed ‘Dracula’ because of his distinctive “widow’s peak” hairstyle, was soon a household name as the game became hugely popular on television.
He won the first Pot Black series on the BBC in 1969, and was made an MBE in the 1985 Queen’s Birthday honours.
As well as outstanding potting ability and tactical nous, Reardon also benefited from fortunate timing.
The introduction of colour television in the late 1960s allowed snooker to emerge from the smoky back rooms of clubs and into the living room, where it found a keen audience.
And as the best player of the time, Reardon was ideally placed to take advantage of the sport’s newly acquired profile.
Ray Reardon recalls how Pot Black – and the introduction of colour TV – boosted snooker
Born in Tredegar, Reardon worked as a coal miner and a police officer while building a reputation in the amateur game before turning professional at the relatively late age of 34 in 1967.
It was a major step to leave a secure job at a time when he did not own a home, but the gamble paid off handsomely as he quickly established himself as one of the most popular characters in the game.
His rivalries with John Spencer and the flamboyant Alex ‘Hurricane’ Higgins made for some of the most compelling sporting contests on television at the time.
His first world title came in 1970, when he beat John Pulman 39 frames to 34.
There followed a gap until 1973, when he beat Australian Eddie Charlton in the final. That was the first of four consecutive titles, culminating in his victory over Higgins in 1976 – the last championship before the move to the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
Reardon won the title again in 1978, and topped the world rankings until 1981, when the emergence of Steve Davis heralded a new era.
He reached the World Championship final again in 1982, but lost to Higgins.
Getty Images – John Spencer (left), Alex Higgins (third left) and Ray Reardon (far right) won 10 successive world titles between them, between 1969 and 1978; Eddie Charlton (second left) was twice a losing finalist
Reardon retired from the professional game in 1991 at the age of 58.
He was later hired by Ronnie O’Sullivan as a consultant and was credited with helping the unpredictable Londoner claim the world title in 2004.
In 2016, the trophy awarded to the winner of the Welsh Open was named the Ray Reardon Trophy in his honour.
In spite of the Dracula nickname, Reardon will be remembered for his ready wit and cheeky winks to the audience as much as the measured tactical play which made him the most consistent and successful player in the world for nearly a decade.
Ray Reardon playing in the Masters Snooker Championship at the Wembley Arena, London, in the 1980s. Photograph: Bob Thomas Sports Photography/Getty Images
Ray Reardon, who has died aged 91 from cancer, was snooker’s world champion six times in the 1970s, the decade in which the game was changing from subterranean folk sport into a TV attraction.
Always immaculately dressed, a highly popular and genial ambassador for the game, ever adept at engaging a crowd, he remains the oldest champion and, on the strength of his 18-15 defeat by Alex Higgins at the age of 49 in 1982, its oldest finalist. After his wins in 1970, 1973-76 and 1978 he was still good enough to reach the 1985 semi-finals, when he was 52, before Steve Davis, the dominant figure of the 80s, trounced him 16-5.
As a player, he transformed himself from brilliant young potter into supreme tactician. In later life his deep knowledge of the game was utilised by Ronnie O’Sullivan, who acknowledged him as a significant factor in capturing the 2004 world title.
Commercially, Reardon’s peak came too early; prize money of £7,500 for winning the 1978 world title, £12,500 for reaching the 1982 final and £20,000 as a 1985 semi-finalist looks like petty cash by today’s standards, although it did not seem too bad in those days, particularly as the snooker revival had started from a low base.
Reardon was born into a snooker family, to Cynthia and Ben Reardon, in Tredegar, south Wales, where he attended Georgetown secondary school. His father, a coalminer, played in the local league for the Miners’ Institute, as did his uncles. When Ray was 14, and after a brief stint as a motor mechanic, he became a miner himself. On his 17th birthday, in 1949, he made his first century break in the morning and won the first of six consecutive Welsh amateur titles in the evening.
In 1956, the family moved to Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, in search of better job prospects. That same year he looked likely to become English amateur champion when he held a 7-3 overnight lead against Tommy Gordon in the final at Burroughes Hall in London, but his tip flew off with his first shot the next day, perhaps through the agency of a betting gang. Forced to play with an unfamiliar cue in those pre-superglue days, he lost 11-9.
Ray Reardon, left, with Ronnie O’Sullivan in 2004. Photograph: Trevor Smith/Alamy
Eleven years in the pits ended in 1957 after he was buried in a roof fall at the Florence Colliery in Stoke, unable to move a muscle for three hours. “I had to breathe through my nose,” he was to recall, “because if I opened my mouth I’d suffocate to death on the dust.”
With iron self-control he kept calm by imagining he was playing endless games of marbles with his eight-year-old brother, Ron.
After that he became a police officer in Stoke, earning a commendation for bravery for disarming a man who was brandishing a shotgun, and another for crawling across a frosty rooftop to drop through a skylight on to an unsuspecting burglar.
In 1964 he achieved his ambition of winning the English amateur championship, beating John Spencer, himself to become a three times world champion, 11-8 in the final at the Central Hall, Birmingham.
A professional career was hardly worth contemplating at the time, as the World Snooker Championship had lain dormant from 1957 until 1964. But after selection for an amateur tour to South Africa he was offered a return visit as a professional and in 1967 took the plunge at the age of 35, in time for the revival of the championship tournament and the advent of BBC Two’s Pot Black. This was a half-hour, one-frame competition that he won twice (1969 and 1979) and that introduced the game and its leading players to new audiences.
Then the world championship ran throughout an entire season of week-long matches, and in 1970 Reardon became champion for the first time by beating John Pulman 37-33 at the Victoria Hall in London. At the City Exhibition Halls in Manchester in 1973, the first time the championship was telescoped into a fortnight, he recovered from 19-12 down to beat Spencer 23-22 in the semi-finals and from 7-0 down defeated Australia’s Eddie Charlton 38-32 to regain the title.
He retained it a year later comparatively uneventfully, but in the 1975 final in Melbourne, Australia, had to make an epic recovery from 29-23 adrift to beat Charlton 31-30. He disposed of the mercurial Higgins 27-16 in the 1976 final at Wythenshawe Forum in Manchester, and in 1978 became champion for the last time at the age of 45 with his 25-18 victory over the South African left-hander Perrie Mans at the Crucible theatre in Sheffield.
He retired to Brixham, Devon, in 1991, later moving to Torquay, but having kept up with contacts on the club scene that had given him his staple income in his early professional days, he continued with exhibitions as well as his summer tours of Pontins holiday camps, a routine he much preferred to the unpaid slog of qualifying competitions.
He is survived by his second wife, Carol Covington, whom he married in 1987, and by two children, Darren and Melanie, from his first marriage, to Susan Carter, in 1959, which ended in divorce.
Ray (Raymond) Reardon, snooker player, born 8 October 1932; died 19 July 2024
ohn Higgins’ 33rd season on the pro tour started with an early exit from the BetVictor Championship League as he finished third in Group Nine, behind Ma Hailong and Ben Mertens.
Four-time World Champion Higgins has been ever-present among the top 16 since 1995, and kept that sequence going by beating Mark Allen 13-12 in the last 16 at the Crucible in April. But his status among the elite remains under threat as 2024/25 gets underway.
The Scot opened strongly today in Leicester with a 3-0 win over tour rookie Artemijs Zizins, firing breaks of 95, 74 and 120. But Higgins then lost 3-0 to Mertens, who scored runs of 68, 86 and 82. Meanwhile, China’s Ma drew 2-2 with Mertens and beat Zizins 3-0, which meant he only needed a draw in the last match of the day against Higgins. A break of 111 gave Ma the opening frame, and he lost the second but then snatched the third on the final black to go 2-1 up and guarantee top spot in the group. Higgins made it 2-2 with a 62 clearance in frame four, but it was not enough.
Group Six was topped by Gary Wilson, who enjoyed his best ever season in 2023/24, winning two ranking titles. The world number 11 saw off Huang Jiahao 3-0 then beat Michael Holt 3-1 with a top break of 97. He still needed a draw in his last match against Joe Perry and fell 1-0 behind, but Wilson made an 83 for 1-1 then added frame three, before Perry clinched a 2-2 draw to secure second place.
I saw nothing from group 6 yesterday but group 9 was certainly very interesting, featuring three young players, one from Latvia, one from China and one from Belgium. They all delivered. Ma Hailong played really well and stayed focused throughout. Ben Mertens played very well in his first two matches but then, rather surprisingly, lost by 3-0 to Artemijs Zizins, when he had a very good chance to top the group. During that match, Ben appeared tired and suffering from the heat. Artemijs Zizins himself showed some very good things: he pots well, his positional play is good but he needs to improve in the safety department and risk management.
WPBSA Q TOUR GLOBAL EXPANDED FOR 2024/25 The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association Group of organisations (WPBSA) has today announced the continued expansion of WPBSA Q Tour Global, the series which provides an elite pathway for talented snooker players around the world to earn their place on the World Snooker Tour.
The announcement follows the biggest-ever Q Tour season to date which saw 551 players (individual players taken from all the Q Tour regional ranking lists) from 44 countries complete 1174 matches across four continents.
WPBSA Q Tour Global will continue to grow over the coming 12 months, with an increased number of regional series’ each set to provide players for the season-ending Global Playoff.
WPBSA Q TOUR EUROPE
Topped last season by former Shoot Out champion Michael Holt, Q Tour Europe will return with seven events for the 2024/25 season.
For the first time, the series will include four tournaments in mainland Europe, with the remaining three to be staged within the UK. The circuit will once again see players compete to finish the season as the top ranked player and earn a place on the World Snooker Tour.
The next 16-ranked players (to include each event champion) will be guaranteed to qualify for the season-end Q Tour Global Playoff.
Following player feedback, the match lengths from the last 64 stage onwards has been increased with each match to be played over the best of seven frames (including the final), with the last 16 moved to Sunday morning to accommodate this change.
As in previous seasons, 48 players (see below) will be seeded through to Saturday’s last 64, to be joined by 16 qualifiers.
THE DATES
The provisional dates for this season’s Q Tour Europe are:
Q Tour 1 – 16-18 August 2024 – Northern Snooker Centre, UK
Q Tour 2 – 13-15 September 2024 – Bulgarian Snooker Academy, BULGARIA
Q Tour 3 – 4-6 October 2024 – Snookerhallen, SWEDEN
Q Tour 4 – 8-10 November 2024 – Club 200, UK
Q Tour 5 – 13-15 December 2024 – Vienna, AUSTRIA
Q Tour 6 – 10-12 January 2025 – Zurich, SWITZERLAND
Q Tour 7 – 7-9 February 2025 – Landywood Snooker Club, UK
As was the case last season, each weekend tournament will be made up of 64 players comprising the following:
The top 32 eligible players from the 2024 UK Q School Order of Merit eligible to compete.
Dylan Emery, Simon Blackwell, Iulian Boiko, Joshua Thomond, Paul Deaville, Daniel Womersley, Anton Kazakov, Joshua Cooper, Florian Nuessle, Mark Joyce, Lewis Ullah, Gerard Greene, Kayden Brierley, Umut Dikme, Sean O’Sullivan, Andres Petrov, Craig Steadman, Connor Benzey, Barry Pinches, Zachary Richardson, Josh Mulholland, James Cahill, Ryan Davies, Lee Daegyu, Alfie Davies, Hamim Hussain, Steven Hallworth, Jenson Kendrick, Alex Clenshaw, Andy Hicks, Rory McLeod, Harvey Chandler
The top 8 from the 2024 Asia-Oceania Q School Order of Merit
Lan Yuhao, Ali Gharahgozlou, Ehsan Heydari Nezhad, Kwok Wai Fung, Xiao Long Liang, Yang Gao, Amin Sanjaei, Muhammed Naseem
The eight highest ranked junior players on the 2024 UK Q School Order of Merit, not already qualified.
Vladislav Gradinari, Shaun Liu, Riley Powell, Steven Wardropper, Adam Abbas, Edward Jones, Oliver Sykes, Aidan Gallagher
EVENT ENTRY
The 48 qualified players will be contacted directly by email with entry instructions after 1 July.Each player will be required to pay a block entry fee of £525 by 12:00pm on 5 July and will be guaranteed a place in the last 64 of each Q Tour Europe tournament.
Following this date, subject to the number of players who have accepted and paid for their Q Tour Europe place, we will contact top up players as required until we have 48 confirmed players for each event. These players will have until 12:00pm 10 July to claim their place.
Open entry for all Friday qualifying tournaments will be opened to all players from no later than 12 July. We aim to accommodate all players who wish to enter; however, we do reserve the right to limit entries for each qualifier or to extend events to Thursdays subject to the number of tables available at the club and time available.
WPBSA Q Tour Global will continue to incorporate regional Q Tour Series’ staged around the world as part of the planned international expansion of Q Tour.
Following last season’s inaugural Middle East, Americas and Asia-Pacific Series, each of these series will be expanded for the 2024/25 season. They will be joined by the CBSA China Tour which becomes a recognised part of Q Tour for the first time.
As part of the WPBSA’s commitment to the international growth of our sport, the leading players from these Regional Q Tour events will qualify to compete at the Q Tour Global Playoff, alongside players from Q Tour Europe.
Players competing in Q Tour events outside of Europe, must be resident for a minimum six months to be eligible to play in these events.
FURTHER INFORMATION
The 48 players eligible to accept a seeded place on Q Tour Europe will be contacted from 1 July with instructions on how to accept their place.
Further information, including open entry details and full entry packs, will be published as soon as possible.
There are several interesting and encouraging aspects to this announcement.
For the first time the “European leg” features more events set to be played in mainland Europe than in the UK
The format has been changed to make the matches slightly longer. This is will favour the better players.
The inclusion of the CBSA Tour into the Global Q-Tour really surprised me, but in a good way.
Ronnie is scheduled to play today in the 2024 ranking CLS. I have no expectations. I doubt that he enjoys playing in front of nobody and having to wait hours between his matches. His goal, if he shows up, will be most probably to prepare the best he can for the next event that will really be important to him: the 2024 Shanghai Masters.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 