The 2019–20 Challenge Tour was a series of

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets, one at each corner and one in the middle of each long side. First played by British Army officers stationed in Ind ...

tournaments that took place 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 ...

. The

Challenge Tour The Challenge Tour is the second-tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European Tour and, as with on the main European Tour and the European Senior Tour, some of the events are played outside Europe. History ...

was the second-tier tour for players not on the main

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

. The top player in the final rankings earned a two-year card to the World Snooker Tour from 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 ...

. The following eight players in the rankings progressed to a play-off event, with the winner of that event also receiving a two-year place on the World Snooker Tour. Two of the events were postponed: Event five was rearranged due to poor weather conditions, whilst the play-off was halted due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

. Played between August and July, the series was contested over ten events.

Ashley Hugill Ashley Hugill (born 28 September 1994 in York, Yorkshire) is an English professional snooker player. Career In May 2017, Hugill came through Q-School by winning six matches to earn a two-year card on the World Snooker Tour for the 2017–18 an ...

finished top of the rankings, winning two of the events. Hugill had already earned a place on the World Snooker Tour having won the 2020 WSF Open, so second placed

Lukas Kleckers Lukas Kleckers (born 18 May 1996 in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia) is a German 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 event ...

earned a tour card. Third ranked

Andrew Pagett Andrew Pagett (born 25 April 1982) is a Welsh professional snooker player. Career Early career He played on Challenge Tour from 2003 to 2005, and first qualified for the Main Tour in 2008–09, but lost his place after just one season. He ...

also received a place on the World Snooker Tour after his victory in the 2020 EBSA European Snooker Championship. Allan Taylor, who had finished seventh in the rankings, won the play-off tournament and a place on the World Snooker Tour.

Format

The

is a series of ten

tournaments, featuring as a qualification route for the

. Featuring 10 events across Europe, each tournament had 64 participants. The leading 56 players in the

2019 Q School The 2019 Q School was a series of three snooker tournaments held during the 2019–20 snooker season. An event for amateur players, it served as a qualification event for a place on the professional World Snooker Tour for the following two sea ...

Order of Merit who had not qualified for the main tour, as well as eight wildcards are eligible to play. If there are fewer than 64 entries, additional entries from the Q School Order of Merit could enter. All matches are for the original ten event were held as the best-of-five . The player with the most prize money from the ten events received participation for the World Snooker Tour for the

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

and

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 pl ...

. A final event, the ''Challenge Tour play-off'' was held for the eight highest prize fund winners, who had not already received a tour card. The winner of the play-off, contested as the best-of-seven frames was also awarded a two-year tour card.

Prize fund

Each event featured a prize fund of £10,000 with the winner receiving £2,000. * Winner: £2,000 * Runner-up: £1,000 * Semi-final: £700 * Quarter-final: £500 * Last 16: £200 * Last 32: £125 * Total: £10,000

Participants

The leading 56 players in the 2019 Q School Order of Merit, excluding the 16 who qualified for the main tour, were automatically eligible to play. *

Ross Bulman Ross or ROSS may refer to: People * Clan Ross, a Highland Scottish clan * Ross (name), including a list of people with the surname or given name Ross, as well as the meaning * Earl of Ross, a peerage of Scotland Places * RoSS, the Republic of Sout ...

Long Zehuang Long Zehuang (; born 28 December 1996) is a Chinese snooker player. He has achieved a place on the World Snooker Tour starting with 2023–24 snooker season. Career Before becoming a professional snooker player, Long won World Junior 9-Ball ...

* Yang Qingtian *

Ian Preece Ian Preece (born 23 June 1982) is a Welsh former professional snooker player, from the city of Newport. Preece first appeared on the main tour in 2003, after a successful career as a junior; he held the record as the youngest winner of the W ...

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 ...

Lin Shuai Lin or LIN may refer to: People *Lin (surname) (normally ), a Chinese surname *Lin (surname) (normally 蔺), a Chinese surname * Lin (''The King of Fighters''), Chinese assassin character *Lin Chow Bang, character in Fat Pizza Places *Lin, Iran, ...

Hamza Akbar Hamza Akbar (Urdu:حمزه اكبر ; born 12 November 1993) is a Pakistani professional snooker player who won the 31st Asian Snooker Championship held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2015. He is also the Pakistan national champion 2015. Career ...

* Allan Taylor * Geng Mingqi * Chae Ross *

Christopher Keogan Christopher Keogan (born 26 August 1992) is an English former professional snooker player. Career From the town of Doncaster, Yorkshire in England, Keogan started playing snooker at the age of 6. In his early years he was coached by Steve Prest ...

Shane Castle Shane may refer to: People * Shane (actress) (born 1969), American pornographic actress * Shane (New Zealand singer) (born 1946) * iamnotshane (born 1995), formerly known as Shane, American singer * Shane (name), a masculine given name and a sur ...

* Andreas Ploner *

Au Chi-wai Au Chi-wai (Chinese: 區志偉, 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 snoo ...

* Wang Zepeng *

Adam Duffy Adam Duffy (born 30 March 1989) is an English professional snooker player. Duffy qualified for the 2011–12 professional Main Tour as one of four semi-finalists from the third and final Q School event. Career Debut season As a new player on ...

Robin Hull Robin Hull (born 16 August 1974) is a Finnish former professional snooker player. For some time, he was the sole Nordic player on the game's main tour. He is known as a solid -builder, having compiled over 150 competitive during his career, a ...

* Sydney Wilson *

Daniel Womersley Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength ...

* Callum Downing * Kayden Brierley *

Callum Lloyd Callum Lloyd (born 1 January 1986, in Nottingham) is an English footballer. Lloyd went to Kimberley School, Nottingham and played for the school team. Lloyd came through the ranks at Mansfield Town, and signed a professional contract at the end ...

* Simon Blackwell *

Guan Zhen Guan Zhen (; born February 6, 1985 in Tianjin) is a former Chinese professional footballer who last played as a goalkeeper for Shenzhen FC. He is currently the assistant goalkeeping coach at Shenzhen FC. Club career Shandong Luneng Gua ...

Zak Surety Zak Surety (born 4 October 1991) is an English professional snooker player. He practises frequently with Stuart Bingham and Allan Taylor. Career As an amateur, Surety based in Basildon entered in Players Tour Championship events from their es ...

* Lee Richardson * Rory McLeod * Jamie McArdle *

Andy Marriott Andrew Marriott (born 11 October 1970) is an English-born Welsh professional footballer, who played as a goalkeeper. He is a journeyman player, having represented various clubs, and has also played for the Welsh national team. Football career M ...

* Ryan Thomerson *

Fang Xiongman Fang Xiongman (,born 9 April 1993) is a former Chinese professional snooker player. Career Fang began competing at professional events in 2012, which included Asian Tour events as well as wildcard rounds of ranking tournaments. His most notable ...

Adrian Rosa Adrian Rosa (born 17 January 1971) is an English former professional snooker player. Career Born in 1971, Rosa turned professional in 1991. He first progressed beyond the pre-qualifying rounds of any event at the 1991 Grand Prix, where he won ...

Patrick Whelan Patrick Whelan (4 September 1893 – 26 April 1916) was an Irish Volunteer, killed in action in Boland's Mill during the Battle of Mount Street Bridge at the time of the Easter Rising of 1916. He was 22 years old when he died and was awarde ...

Rodion Judin Rodion (russian: wikt:Родион, Родион) is a Slavic masculine given name of Greek origin, which is sometimes shortened to Rod. It may refer to *Rodion Amirov, (born 2001), Russian ice hockey player *Rodion Azarkhin (1931–2007), Russian m ...

* Andrew Doherty *

Michael Collumb Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian and ...

Ka Wai Cheung Cheung Ka-wai also as Ka Wai Cheung (, born 17 February 1999) is a snooker player from Hong Kong. Career Amateur In 2015, Cheung won the IBSF World Under-18 Snooker Championship On 4 March 2015 it was announced that Cheung was invited to play ...

* Dean Young *

Sean Maddocks Sean Maddocks (born 10 April 2002) is an England, English former professional snooker player. As a 15 year old, he became the youngest snooker player to score a 147 break in competition, beating the previous record held by Ronnie O'Sullivan. Ca ...

* George Pragnell * Matthew Glasby *

Himanshu Dinesh Jain Himanshu Dinesh Jain (born 6 September 1991) is an Indian professional snooker player. Jain turned professional as one of the two qualifiers from the second Asia & Oceania event of the 2022 Q School, earning a two-year tour card for the 2022� ...

* Fergal Quinn * Peter Devlin *

Matthew Couch Matthew Couch (born 30 June 1974) is an English former professional snooker player. Career During a professional career lasting from 1992 to 2012, Couch had little success in ranking events, although he reached the quarter-finals of the UK Ch ...

Ryan Davies Ryan Davies (22 January 1937 – 22 April 1977) was a Welsh comedian, actor, musician, singer, and songwriter. Though his career lasted just 11 years, he became widely known in Wales through his work with Ronnie Williams as the comedic double ac ...

Aditya Mehta Aditya Mehta (born 31 October 1985 in Mumbai, India) is an Indian former professional snooker player. He participated on the World Snooker Tour for the 2007–08 season, and between 2011 and 2018. He reached a highest world ranking of 49. Mehta ...

* Amir Sarkhosh *

Michael Wild Michael Wild (born 27 March 1981) is an English former professional snooker player. Career During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Wild competed in the Challenge Tour and International Open Series events, without much success until the 2002/20 ...

Iulian Boiko Iulian Boiko (born 22 September 2005 in Kyiv, Ukraine) is a Ukrainian snooker player who was professional from 2020 to 2022. Career In May 2019, Boiko registered his first official century break in a 4–3 defeat against Billy Joe Castle in ...

* Lee Daegyu *

Alex Taubman Alex is a given name. It can refer to a shortened version of Alexander, Alexandra, Alexis. People Multiple *Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people *Alex Gordon (disambiguation), multiple people *Alex Harris (disambiguation), multiple peop ...

Summary

The first event was won by

, who defeated Oliver Brown 3–1 in the final in

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

, Germany.

Jake Nicholson Jake Charlie Nicholson (born 19 July 1992) is an English former footballer. He is a product of the West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur youth academies. He has also represented England at under-19 level. Career Tottenham Hotspur Nichols ...

defeated Welshman

in the second event, in

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Be ...

, England. Paggett then won the third event, defeating

Robbie McGuigan Robbie McGuigan (born 7 July 2004) is a professional snooker player from Northern Ireland. In 2023, he became a three-time Northern Ireland Amateur champion, whilst still a teenager. Early life From County Antrim, McGuigan attended Antrim Gr ...

3–0 in the final. At the fourth event in

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Scienc ...

, Belgium,

defeated Aaron Hill 3–1. Allan Taylor won the fifth event, defeating Scottish player Michael Collumb in the final. Brown won the sixth tournament, defeating Hugill in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, Hungary. Scottish 17-year-old Dean Young overcame Paggett in

Pelt Fur is a thick growth of hair that covers the skin of mammals. It consists of a combination of oily guard hair on top and thick underfur beneath. The guard hair keeps moisture from reaching the skin; the underfur acts as an insulating blanke ...

, Belgium.

completed a 3–1 win over Tyler Rees in Tamworth, England in event 8. Hugill won his second title in event 9 in

Llanelli Llanelli ("St Elli's llan (placename element), Parish"; ) is a market town and the largest community in Carmarthenshire and the Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county of Dyfed, Wales. It is located on the Loughor estuary north-west of ...

, Wales after a 3–1 win over Sydney Wilson. The final event was won by

, who beat

Kuldesh Johal Kuldesh Johal (born 25 September 1980) is an English former professional snooker player. He competed on the main tour during the 2008/2009 and 2010/2011 seasons. Career Born in 1980, Johal played in Challenge Tour qualifying events in the ea ...

in Leicester, England. Hugill finished the season as the highest ranked player, but had won the 2020 WSF Open, which gave him a place on the World Snooker Tour for the following two seasons. As such, second placed

qualified from the Challenge Tour to the main tour for the next two seasons. Third placed

also received a tour card, having won the 2020 EBSA European Snooker Championship. The next eight highest ranked players took part in the play-off in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

in England for a final World Snooker Tour place for the following two seasons. The play-off was postponed until August 2020 due to the

, but was won by Taylor, who completed a 4–0

whitewash Whitewash, or calcimine, kalsomine, calsomine, 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 used. ...

victory over Duffy.

Results

Below is the schedule for the eleven events.

Rankings

Below is the leading 20 players in the prize money rankings over the series.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2019-20 Challenge Tour Q Tour 2019 in snooker 2020 in snooker