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Q Tour 21/22

Postby SteveJJ

Announced last month, WPBSA Q Tour will become the premier qualifying circuit to the World Snooker Tour with two professional places to be won across the season.

There will be four regular Q Tour tournaments held from November 2021 to March 2022, with the top ranked player at the end of the season guaranteed to earn a two-year tour card. There will also be a play-off tournament run with 16 players, with the winner also to earn their professional card.
The provisional dates for this season’s Q Tour are:

19-21 November 2021 – Castle Snooker Club, Brighton
10-12 December 2021 – Terry Griffiths Matchroom, Llanelli
28-30 January 2022 – The Winchester, Leicester
18-20 March 2022 – Northern Snooker Centre, Leeds

Each weekend will see 64 players in action, to include a maximum of 48 who have qualified directly for the main draw due to their positions on the 2021 Q School Order of Merit.
The remaining 16 players will come from an open qualifier to be held on the Friday to complete the field.

The Players

The top 40 highest-ranked players not already on tour and the next highest ranked eight junior players (Under-21), not already qualified from the 2021 Q School Order of Merit, will be eligible to compete in this season’s Q Tour tournaments. These players are:

Top 40: Sanderson Lam, Michael Georgiou, Si Jiahui, Soheil Vahedi, Michael White, David Lilley, Ross Muir, John Astley, Bai Langning, James Cahill, Dylan Emery, Mark Lloyd, Simon Blackwell, Haydon Pinhey, Billy Castle, Kuldesh Johal, Rod Lawler, Leo Fernandez, Robbie McGuigan, Daniel Womersley, Ryan Davies, Oliver Brown, Michael Collumb, Luke Pinches, Joshua Thomond, Ross Vallance, Saqib Nasir, Niel Vincent, Luo Honghao, Ross Bulman, Paul Davison, Sydney Wilson, Ben Fortey, Alex Millington, Dylan Mitchell, Sean Harvey, Ben Mertens, Brian Cini, Paul Davies and Tony Knowles

Juniors: Hayden Staniland (50), Jenson Kendrick (55), Florian Nuessle (57), Hamim Hussain (58), Liam Pullen (65), Julien Leclercq (70), Callum Beresford (71) and Liam Graham (72).

These players will be contacted directly by email with entry instructions. Each player will be required to pay a block entry fee of £200.00 by 12:00pm on 15 October and will be guaranteed a place in the last 64 of each tournament.

Following this date, subject to the number of players who have accepted and paid for their Q Tour 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 19 October to claim their place.

Open entry for all Friday qualifying tournaments will be opened to all players from no later than 20 October. We aim to accommodate all players who wish to enter, however, we do reserve the right to limit entries for each qualifier subject to the number of tables available at the club and time available.

All entries are to be made via WPBSA SnookerScores.

Event entry deadlines are as follows:

Q Tour 1 (Brighton) – 5 November 2021
Q Tour 2 (Llanelli) – 26 November 2021
Q Tour 3 (Leicester) – 14 January 2022
Q Tour 4 (Leeds) – 4 March 2022
The entry fee for each tournament will be £50.00, with a total prize fund of £12,000 per tournament to be won.

Jason Ferguson, WPBSA Chairman said: “We are today excited to confirm the four excellent venues that will host this season’s WPBSA Q Tour.

“Each of these facilities are proven venues used to hosting significant competitions and we look forward to delivering these high-quality tournaments for the best amateur players in the world, who have the ambition to test their skills on the World Snooker Tour next season.”

Re: Q Tour 21/22

Postby gninnur karona

Seven players apparently declined the opportunity: Ross Vallance, Luo Honghao, Ross Bulman, Paul Davison, Dylan Mitchell, Sean Harvey and Paul Davies.

Their places have been accepted by Ian Martin (41=), Harvey Chandler (43), Eden Sharav (44), Joshua Cooper (45), Lee Shanker (46), Alex Taubman (47) and Brandon Sargeant (49). Riley Parsons presumably declined.

Two players who have accepted are Dylan Emery and Oliver Brown who have already earned tour cards for 2022-23. Their presence by consequence deprives two others guaranteed participation in the main stages of all the QTour events. That's unfortunate but highlights a flaw in the current tour structure, or perhaps better to say an immense hole in the current tour structure. The pair deserve to have the opportunity to best prepare for their professional debuts. What alternative do they have? A no-brainer to participate.

NB: Numbers in brackets show places on 2021 QSchool Order of Merit excluding the 14 players granted 2-year WST tour cards.