The second of the 2 Q School Europe events concluded today with another 4 places on the World Snooker Tour (WST) awarded.
4 places were also awarded in the first event and all the results etc can be seen on snooker.org
Out of the 12 players who were on the WST last season but had to play at Q School to try to regain their place, only 4 managed to do that. They are Alexander Ursenbacher, Liam Pullen, David Grace and Ian Burns.
Oliver Brown will be back on the WST after a short break on the amateur circuit but it will be first time on the WST for 3 players, Mateusz Baranowski, Conor Benzey and Fergal Quinn.
Looking at the players that didn’t qualify, it really does seem that the system of selecting players for the WST is far from fair.
We will soon be able to see the full list of players who be on the WST for next season and it will be obvious there are players who will be enjoying the benefits of the minority group allocations while more deserving players are left out in the cold.
Nothing against those players who have taken advantage of the extra opportunities afforded to them, but I firmly believe that a professional sport should be a meritocracy and nothing less.
The WST events, especially ranking events, should not be used as promotional events to try to get people playing the game. There are many better ways to do that.
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There’s no doubt at all that there are much easier q school routes to a tour card than the European one, but I guess that once on the tour , all players will have to produce the goods to stay there. I personally believe the fairest way for qualification should be an order of merrit type amateur tour, rather like Q tour is now but with many more places up for grabs, and Q school dropped. Of course that wouldnt make a shed load of cash for the WST via Q School events so its unlikely to happen anytime soon.
Having said all that – I am delighted for Connor Benzey who’s just secured his first tour card. He was one of the first amateur players we sponsored via Snookerz , and although Snookerz is not currently one of his sponsors its still great to see him achieve his first tour card.