The 2019 Q School was a series of three

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, billiards table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets: one at each corner and ...

tournaments held during the

2019–20 snooker season The 2019–20 snooker season was a series of professional snooker tournaments played between 9 May 2019 and 22 August 2020. In total, 47 events were held during the season: however, the ending of the season was highly disrupted by the ...

. An event for amateur players, it served as a qualification event for a place on the professional

World Snooker Tour The World Snooker Tour (WST) is the main professional snooker tour, consisting of about 128 players competing on a circuit of up to 28 tournaments each season. It is administered by World Snooker Ltd, the commercial arm of professional snooker, ...

for the following two seasons. The events took place in May and June 2019 at the Robin Park Leisure Centre in

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...

, England. The event was organised by

World Snooker The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk of a "plu ...

, with entries for the event costing £1,000 but with no maximum number of participants. Each tournament is split into four paths, with the winner of each path being awarded a place on the World Snooker Tour for the 2019–20 season and the

2020–21 snooker season The 2020–21 snooker season was a professional snooker season with tournaments played from 13 September 2020 to 9 May 2021. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the season was played almost entirely without a live audience with only the 2021 W ...

. Twelve players qualified from the events:

Chen Zifan Chen Zifan (; born 17 September 1995) is a Chinese professional snooker player who, in 2023, received a five-year ban from professional competition after committing match-fixing offences. In December 2022, Chen was suspended from the professio ...

, Riley Parsons, Louis Heathcote,

Fraser Patrick Fraser Patrick (born 8 November 1985) is a Scottish former professional snooker player from Glasgow. Career Patrick started his professional career in 2002 by playing Challenge Tour, where he spent three seasons without success. In 2007 Patric ...

, Xu Si,

David Lilley David William Lilley (born 31 October 1977) is a Scottish former professional footballer who usually plays at centre back but has also played at right back. Lilley was most recently the manager of Bellshill Athletic in the Scottish Junior Foo ...

, Jamie O'Neill,

Soheil Vahedi Soheil Vahedi (, born March 15, 1989) is an Iranian former professional snooker player. Career In 2009 Vahedi entered the IBSF World Under-21 Snooker Championship, World Amateur Under-21 Snooker Championships in his home country in Kish Island, ...

Barry Pinches Barry Pinches (born 13 July 1970 in Catton, Norwich) is an English former professional snooker player, recognisable for his bright and flamboyant waistcoats, which usually feature the yellow and green colours of Norwich City F.C. He is a form ...

, Alex Borg,

Alexander Ursenbacher Alexander Ursenbacher (born 26 April 1996) is a Swiss professional snooker player from Rheinfelden. He is the first snooker player from Switzerland to have competed professionally (former professional Darren Paris represented England, in the mid ...

and

Andy Hicks Andrew Hicks (born 10 August 1973) is an English retired professional snooker player. Nicknamed "The Cream of Devon", Hicks was a semi-finalist at both the World Snooker Championship and UK Championship in 1995, and the same stage at four other ...

. Four more players:

Si Jiahui Si Jiahui ( ; born 11 July 2002) is a Chinese professional snooker player. After training at the Wiraka Billiard Academy in Foshan, he moved to the United Kingdom aged 16 and earned a two-year tour card through the 2019 Q School for the 2019 ...

, Billy Joe Castle,

Peter Lines Peter Lines (born 11 December 1969) is an English former professional snooker player. He has reached the semi-finals of one ranking tournament, the 2018 Paul Hunter Classic. He reached his highest ranking, 42nd in the world, in 1999. He is the ...

and

Lei Peifan Lei Peifan (; born 31 May 2003) is a Chinese professional snooker player. While ranked 84th in the world, he won his first ranking event in December 2024, the 2024 Scottish Open, by defeating Wu Yize 95 in the final. Career In May 2019, Lei ...

; were also given tour cards for being at the top of the Order of Merit. The highest break of the events was a 137 made by both Xu Si in event one and Lucky Vatnani in event two.

Format

The Q School is a series of three

tournaments, featuring as a qualification route for the

. First played in

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

, each event consisted of players being randomly assigned to four sections. The 2019 events were played at the Robin Park Leisure Centre in

, England. Each section played in the knockout system with the winner of each section earning a two-year tour card to play on the World Snooker Tour for the

and

. Four more players also received places on the tour based on the Order of Merit, based on the number of frames won over the three events. All matches were played as the best of seven . Events had no maximum participants, but entries cost £1,000.

Event 1

The first event was held between 18 and 23 May. In a six-hour fifth round match,

Ashley Hugill Ashley Hugill (born 28 September 1994 in York, Yorkshire) is an English former professional snooker player. Career Hugill came through the 2017 Q School by winning six matches to earn a two-year card on the World Snooker Tour for the 2017– ...

required two snookers in the . He got the foul points, but still lost the match to

Lukas Kleckers Lukas Kleckers (born 18 May 1996 in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia) is a German former professional snooker player. Career Kleckers first drew attention in 2013 when, at the age of 17, he captured the highest ranking and most prestigious amateur ...

on a .

Paul Davison Paul S. Davison (born 1 October 1971) is an English former professional snooker player from Pickering, North Yorkshire. First earning a place on the World Snooker Tour in 1992, he played on the tour until 1997, and has since regained his place o ...

and

were tied at 3–3 and was decided on the final , by Vahedi. In the final round,

completed a

whitewash Whitewash, calcimine, kalsomine, calsomine, asbestis or lime paint is a type of paint made from slaked lime ( calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2) or chalk (calcium carbonate, CaCO3), sometimes known as "whiting". Various other additives are sometimes ...

over Sean Maddocks to win a tour card for the first time. Xu Si, who had been demoted from the tour the previous season, defeated fellow Chinese player Wang Zepeng 4–2. During the match Xu made the highest break of the tournament, a 137. Jamie O'Neill defeated Kleckers 4–1, whilst Vahedi beat Ross Bulman 4–2.

Event 2

The second event was held between 24 and 29 May. In the opening round, Lucky Vatnani made the highest break of the event, a 137, but still lost 4–2 to Long Zehuang. The qualification round saw

complete a whitewash 4–0 win over

Au Chi-wai Au Chi-wai (; born 19 November 1969), sometimes referred to as Au Chi Wai or Chi-wai Au in Western media), is an amateur snooker and pool player from Hong Kong. In snooker, he won (with Marco Fu), the silver medal in the snooker doubles event ...

from Hong Kong, Riley Parsons defeat

4–3 and

beat

Sydney Watson Sydney Watson (3 September 1903 – 17 February 1991) was an English church musician who was the organist of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford and conductor of the Oxford Bach Choir from 1955 to 1970. Biography Watson was born in Denton, Lanc ...

4–3. Patrick likened the experience of playing in the event as "every match is like going 12 rounds with

Anthony Joshua Anthony Oluwafemi Olaseni Joshua (born 15 October 1989) is a British professional boxer. He held the unified champion, unified world heavyweight championship twice between 2016 and 2021. At regional level, he held the British Boxing Board of C ...

". In the final qualification match,

led Louis Heathcote 3–0, who also required snookers in frame four and five, but still lost 4–3.

Event 3

The third and final event was held between 30 May and 4 June. In the qualification round,

defeated Long 4–3, and 1995 World Snooker Championship semi-finalist

defeated Yang Qingtian 4–0. Alex Borg, Malta's second most successful player after

Tony Drago Tony Drago ( ; born 22 September 1965) is a Maltese former professional snooker and pool player. Known for his speed around the table, during his snooker career he won two professional titles: the 1993 Strachan Challenge Event 3 and the 1996 ...

, defeated Billy Joe Castle 4–1 and

beat

4–3. Both Castle and Lines already had enough frames won to qualify for the main tour before these matches occurred. The final two qualification tour cards were awarded to Si Jiahui and Peifan Lei.

Order of Merit

The Order of Merit was awarded to players who won the most frames across the three events who didn't qualify automatically from the events. The top players are shown below, those with Q in brackets were awarded places on the World Snooker Tour. The Order of Merit also acted as qualification for the

2019–20 Challenge Tour The 2019–20 Challenge Tour was a series of snooker tournaments that took place during the 2019–20 snooker season. The Challenge Tour (snooker), Challenge Tour was the second-tier tour for players not on the main World Snooker Tour. The top p ...

Two-season performance of qualifiers

The following table shows the rankings of the 16 qualifiers from the 2019 Q School, at the end of the

, the end of their two guaranteed seasons on the tour, together with their tour status for the

2021–22 snooker season The 2021–22 snooker season was a series of snooker tournaments played from July 2021 to May 2022, including the professional World Snooker Tour but also featuring events for female, senior, and Q School players. The season saw a record five ...

. Players in the top-64 of the rankings retained their place on the tour while those outside the top-64 lost their place unless they qualified under a different category.

References

External links

* {{2019–20 snooker season Q School (snooker) 2019 in English sport 2019 in snooker Sport in Wigan