The first 2025 UK/Europe Classical Q-School event delivered four graduates today.

Here is the report by WST:

Pullen, Ursenbacher, Brown And Baranowski Secure Tour Cards

Liam Pullen, Alexander Ursenbacher, Oliver Brown and Mateusz Baranowski secured two-year cards for the World Snooker Tour after successfully negotiating the Q School gauntlet at Event One in Leicester.

Pullen earned an immediate tour return by beating Germany’s Umut Dikme 4-2 in his final round match.

The Yorkshire cueman suffered relegation at the end of last term, having first qualified as a professional with success at Q School in 2023. 19-year-old Pullen displayed glimpses of his potential in his maiden stint on tour, including a run to the last 16 of the Shoot Out and the last 32 of the International Championship. However, he didn’t do enough to secure his place on the circuit. 

This morning’s clash with Dikme saw Pullen compose runs of 73, 82 and 58 to wrap up victory.

“The overriding emotion is relief. I’d rather have stayed on tour the proper way and been in the world’s top 64, but I’m here and I’ve come through this week,” said former WSF Junior Championship runner-up Pullen.

“When you have been on tour for a couple of years this is a bit of a come down. The environment is totally different. Even in that match there, I had a lot of knocks. I went to the toilet and I was in bits. I had a strong word with myself and I’m glad I found a way to get over the line. I know deep inside I should be on tour, but to do it, win and pot those balls is a different kettle of fish.”

Ursenbacher also booked an instant bounce back to the circuit with a 4-1 win over English 23-year-old Ryan Davies. 

Swizerland’s Ursenbacher is a Q School veteran, having now come through the process no fewer than four times. He last qualified in 2023, but after two disappointing years on tour he dropped off following this season’s World Championship. 

The former English Open semi-finalist, who has 3-0 head-to-head record with Ronnie O’Sullivan, top scored with 61 in today’s win. 

“I’ve changed my mindset a bit. I just can’t keep doing this for much longer. I don’t know how I keep doing it, my record in Q School is quite good. I’m just really proud and I want to make the next step now,” said 29-year-old Ursenbacher.

“I want to do what I dreamed of as a kid. I’m getting older and I see all these youngsters achieving stuff. You see the likes of Xintong winning the World Championship. At some time you have to stop kidding yourself. 

“You can talk all you want, but actions count and words mean nothing. I’ve always said what I think and what I feel, but discipline was a big problem for me. I know if I put the work in I will get results.“

Brown sealed his return after a year away from the tour with a 4-1 win over fellow former professional Craig Steadman. 

The Englishman first qualified for the World Snooker Tour by winning the European Championship in 2021. However, he was only able to muster ten match wins in his first two years and was relegated in 2023. 

After losing the opening frame this morning, Brown reeled off four on the bounce to prevail and give himself another shot at snooker’s top table. 

Brown said: “I’m absolutely delighted. I was half expecting not to get this far, but I just showed some real grit and determination this week. I’m really proud of myself and over the moon to be back on tour.

“The reason I’ve won today is because of my family. I have to pot the balls, but they give me self belief and make it as if it doesn’t really matter, win or lose. I feel very fortunate to be in that position.“

Poland’s Baranowski was the last player through after coming through a marathon showdown with England’s Patrick Whelan 4-2. 

The 27-year-old has a role in the coaching setup for Poland’s Junior Team, which includes 14-year-old sensation Michal Szubarczyk who will also join the tour next year. He has previously stated that their exploits have motivated him to try and forge a professional career for himself. The pair will now join compatriot Antoni Kowalski on the World Snooker Tour next season.

Leading 3-2 in today’s final round match, he prevailed in a 53-minute sixth frame to ensure his maiden two-year tour card.

Baranowski said: “It is a crazy feeling. I didn’t play my best game, but I was fighting and I was a lot more confident than last year. This is the first time I’ve come here and believed that I could do it.

“I’ve always wanted to play with professionals. This was my dream 20 years ago, when I started playing. To be honest I lost hope and I stopped playing in a lot of tournaments. It was always the same. I was going to tournaments and playing ten percent of my game. 

“In the past sometimes I have given up, but when I started coaching I knew they would be watching me. I needed to always play my best, even if I play badly. I tell them to focus and just give everything. I decided that I have to do the same. That has worked and I have been more focussed. I always say to my students, don’t give up and fight. Make sure you do your best.”

There are four more cards available in the second event, which gets underway tomorrow and runs until Sunday June 1st.

All four players are young(ish). Oliver Brown who will turn 31 next August is the older of the “graduates”. Two are British, two are from mainland Europe. Considering that the “Europe” Q-School is held in the UK and that the UK players are the “majority group” in the field it’s a good result for “mainland Europe” and one more indication that snooker needs to break free of the UK centric organisation that still prevails. It’s holding the sport back.

Mateusz Baranowski is the only “new” player, the other three have been pros before.

That said Liam Pullen is still only 19 and he’s done very well considering how young he was when he first turned pro. He hasn’t won much during his first two years on tour but impressed me in this Q-School. He showed a lot of maturity. He clearly learned a lot during his two years on tour despite the relative lack of “results”. It’s not always the case, far from it. It’s easy to get discouraged and to lose confidence when things aren’t working for you, especially when you are so young.

Here is the report shared by WST:

Thailand’s Chatchapong Nasa earned a place on the World Snooker Tour for the first time by beating Liu Linhao 4-0 in the semi-finals of Asia-Oceania Q School Event 1 in Bangkok on Sunday.

Nasa, age 27, wins a place on the pro circuit for the 2025/26 and 2026/27 seasons. He will be one of at least five Thai players on the tour next season, joining Noppon Saengkham, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, Sunny Akani and Mink Nutcharut. 

“I was very nervous at the start because this match meant so much to me,” said Nasa. “I have entered Q School for four years – the first time in the UK – but I didn’t succeed. This is my third time trying in Thailand. I have been training six to eight hours every day for this event. After I won four matches in the earlier rounds, I told myself ‘this is it. I must qualify this year.’ I’m so relieved to get through in the first event and not have to start all over again tomorrow.

“I want to thank the Billiard Sports Association of Thailand for providing this opportunity for Thai and Asian players to earn tour cards without having to travel to the UK. I also want to express my sincere gratitude to S1 and all my sponsors who have supported me throughout.”

In an all-Chinese second semi-final, Liu Wenwei overcame Luo Zetao 4-3 and also earned a tour card for the first time.

Luo led 2-1 before Liu hit back with breaks of 75 and 56 to move ahead 3-2. In frame six, Luo made the highest break of the tournament so far with 117 to force the decider. But it was Liu who held his nerve, potting a brilliant long yellow to seal victory.

Asia Oceania Event 2 starts on Monday 19th May with two more tour cards up for grab.

All results and fixtures

Congratulations Chatchapong Nasa and Liu Wenwei!

The coverage of the event has been good with a lot of matches being streamed. I reckon that this is thanks to the Billiard Sports Association of Thailand as well. Generally, the quality of the snooker on show has been really good. Unless my memory is misleading me, it’s better than anything we had in Asian Q-School events in previous years.

All the detailed results are available on snooker.org

The 2025 Asia-Oceania Q School Event 2 starts today – has already started actually – and can be followed here.

The calendar for the 2025/26 season is now available on on the WST website and on snooker.org.

Here is a “print screen” of the latter:

At the time of writing, the Players Championship doesn’t feature in this list, probably because the dates and or venue are not “decided” yet. Note that in the coming season the World Grand Prix, Players Championship and Tour Championship will not be “consecutive” events which is good. This season, because they were played consecutively, little changed in the rankings at the top and we had a few “repeat matches” which wasn’t great.

The qualifiers for the Chinese events and for the German Masters are still played in the UK. You know how I feel about that. Also there is still only one event scheduled in mainland Europe despite the successes of a significant number of mainland European young players in major amateur tournaments. You know how I feel about that too. 😡 There should be an “European Open” in the calendar at the very least, played in mainland Europe of course, with no qualifiers or qualifiers played at the same location right ahead of the tournament. For years, German and Austrian amateurs have been invited to the German Masters, and never made it to Berlin because they lost in qualifiers … played in the UK. There is no point inviting them if there is next to zero chance they will play in front of their own fans

Don’t ask about the “Pan American” thing… I have no clue.

Zhao Xintong played marvellous snooker in the 2025 World Snooker Championship Final to become the first ever Chinese World Champion. He beat Mark Williams by 18-12 in the Final at the Crucible Theatre yesterday evening.

Congratulations Zhao Xintong!

Here is the report shared by WST:

Jubilant Zhao Makes History As First World Champion From China

Zhao Xintong registered a seismic moment in snooker history as he became the first Chinese player to conquer the Crucible, beating Mark Williams 18-12 in the final of the Halo World Championship.

The final: frame by frame

In a final which was one-sided until a rousing finish, 28-year-old Zhao surged into a 7-1 advantage in the opening session and went on to lead 11-6 and 17-8 at the end of the next two sessions. Williams threatened an all-time unique fight-back when he recovered to 17-12, but Zhao eventually clinched the result in frame 30 with a break of 87 to capture the famous trophy and £500,000 top prize.

Since the emergence of Ding Junhui as a force 20 years ago, the question of when – and whether – a Chinese player would capture the sport’s biggest prize has been asked repeatedly. Now we have the answer and Zhao is the man who has broken the frontier. And it is fitting that he has done so in a season where three other Chinese players have won ranking titles, and ten were among the 32 players who started out at the Crucible 17 days ago. Zhao will instantly become a megastar in his homeland and an inspiration to tens of millions of young fans who watch and play snooker.

“For the sport, Zhao winning it could be huge, it could open floodgates everywhere,” said Williams at the end of the final. “We have a new superstar. It’s what snooker needed, someone like him to come through. He will be a great World Champion. He is probably the best potter I have ever seen, I have nothing but admiration for him. He has bashed everyone up including Ronnie and me. Just watch him because he could dominate, or at least give Judd Trump and Kyren Wilson a run for their money.”

The Overseas Crucible Champions

Zhao Becomes Fifth Non-British Winner

1980 Cliff Thorburn (Canada)
1997 Ken Doherty (Ireland)
2010 Neil Robertson (Australia)
2023 Luca Brecel (Belgium)
2025 Zhao Xintong (China) 

Born in Xi’an in the Shaanxi province, Zhao spent his eighth birthday watching Ding win the 2005 China Open. By his early teens he was beating pro players in exhibitions, and first turned pro in 2016, moving to Sheffield where he still lives, within walking distance of the Crucible. In 2021 his major breakthrough came as he won the UK Championship and climbed into the top 16, soon doubling his tally of ranking titles at the 2022 German Masters. He was subsequently banned for 20 months for breaching betting regulations, but dedicated himself to practice during that period and regained his tour card via the Q Tour. Currently still an amateur, Zhao was awarded a place in the first qualifying round of this event and has grasped that opportunity.  

With a marvellous attacking style and cue power reminiscent of a young Jimmy White, Zhao is a devastating long potter and break-builder, and has added tactical maturity to his game with a decade of experience. Across the event he made 18 centuries, equalling the record set by Ding in 2016. His most impressive asset is his unflappable nature on centre stage – indeed he was barely fazed by ties against all-time greats Ronnie O’Sullivan in the semi-finals and Williams in the final. Arguably now the most exciting player on the planet, Zhao could continue to improve in the coming years and establish himself as a leading contender for every major title. 

He becomes the third qualifier – after Terry Griffiths in 1979 and Shaun Murphy in 2005 – to go all the way to the trophy, and sets a new record for the most matches won en route to the title, having scored four victories in the qualifying rounds and five more at the Crucible. He is the first amateur to win a ranking event, and the youngest World Champion since Murphy. 

Zhao becomes the 24th player to lift the trophy at the Crucible and the first Asian. Currently unranked, he will jump to 11th in the Johnstone’s Paint World Rankings at the start of next season, and indeed will be seeded second for most events as World Champion. 

Williams, the oldest Crucible finalist at the age of 50, misses out on a fourth world crown which would have matched the tallies of John Higgins and Mark Selby. A 17-14 victory over world number one Judd Trump on Saturday was one of his best of recent years, but perhaps left him jaded for the first session of the final, and the veteran Welshman was unable to recover. The £200,000 runner-up prize lifts him to third in the world, a remarkable position for a player who turned professional five years before Zhao was even born.

Trailing 17-8 coming into the fourth and final session and playing for pride, Williams made a break of 101 in the opener tonight, his first century of the final. He added the next in two scoring visits, then early in frame 28 Zhao missed a tricky red on 6 and Williams replied with 96 to close the gap to 17-11. A massive fluke on a red in the next set Williams up for a break of 73 to take the session to an interval. In frame 30, Williams had one more chance to extend the fight back, but missed a red to a top corner on 8 and this time Zhao took his chance. 

Across the final, Zhao compiled breaks of 51, 77, 100, 57, 104, 83, 71, 56, 96, 71, 58, 52, 67 and 87.

“I can’t believe it, I’m very excited,” said Zhao after draping himself in a Chinese flag. “I was so nervous tonight. Mark is still a top player and put me under so much pressure. I will have a good drink tonight! Thank you to everyone in the crowd. It feels like a dream. Thank you to my parents, (manager) Victoria, my girlfriend, my coach when I was young, to WST, WPBSA and the CBSA academy.

“I knew if I missed then Mark would come back quickly. I had to really concentrate and be careful. In the last frame I just wanted to clean up the table, then I was very happy. When we shook hands I was nearly crying. It’s very good for Chinese snooker and I am happy I have done this for the people there. I hope it will give power to the young players. I don’t know how I have played so well here, I didn’t believe I could become World Champion this year, I am so proud of myself. I will take the trophy home to China and show it to my parents and friends.”

Williams added: “I was never in the final from the start, it was the only match where I didn’t play well. I’ve had really tough, close matches. If I had got out of the first session 5-3 that would have been a result, but unfortunately it was 7-1. I gave it a go tonight but I was too far behind. I gave it my best and left nothing out there. I’m disappointed but it has been a great tournament. When I came down the stairs, the ovation was so loud, it was brilliant.”

Zhao’s route to the title was extraordinary, and even that word isn’t sufficient to express the real nature of this achievement. Zhao was banned. He didn’t fix any match but he did bet on snooker and failed to report intended match fixing situations he became aware of. When his ban finished, he re-qualified for the main tour via the Q-Tour. He won four events on the spin… His excellence in the Q-Tour earned him an invitation to the World Championship qualifiers, starting in the very first round, he went all the way, and yesterday he won the event, conquered the title, playing with brilliance and an iron will to win. No player ever did something quite like that before. Of course, he isn’t the first qualifier to win the World Championship, but none of the “previous” had to overcome as many obstacles as Zhao did, on and off the table, to achieve the feat.

It is to be admired … and still … there were corners on social media going on about his alleged past match fixing and hinting that he shouldn’t have been allowed to play ever again. WPBSA findings were that Zhao did NOT fix any match, he failed to report match fixing cases he was aware of and he did bet on snooker but he did NOT fix any match himself. He served his ban, continued to train and work whilst serving it, qualified on merit and won on merit. That’s it. That’s all there is to know. He’s a worthy World Champion, and he won it with style and panache!

PS … if you wonder why I’m only posting about this now and not earlier today … it’s because I was on planes, trains, and the road… en route to Sheffield, traveling from Santorini . The 2025 World Seniors Snooker Championship starts tomorrow at the Crucible and I’ll be there, with my camera…