The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) and World Snooker Tour have announced the qualification criteria for the 16 amateur qualifiers who have earned the right to compete at the Cazoo World Snooker Championship in Sheffield next month.
This year’s qualifying rounds will return to the English Institute for Sport, Sheffield from 3-12 April 2023. The field will include professionals ranked outside of the world’s top 16 following the Duelbits Tour Championship and amateur top ups from the 2022 Q School Order of Merit.
They will be joined by 16 leading amateur players, based upon their achievements at recognised international competitions during the current season. These include the World Snooker Federation Championships, the WPBSA Q Tour and the World Women’s Snooker Championship.
Jason Ferguson, WPBSA Chairman said: “It is always an honour to be able to announce our WPBSA qualifiers who will compete at this year’s World Snooker Championship in Sheffield.”
“This year’s field contains an exciting array of talent, from some of the most talented juniors in the world. These include our WSF champions Hai Long Ma and Stan Moody, as well as vastly experienced former ranking event semi-finalists Martin O’Donnell and Daniel Wells, who throughout a period off tour have demonstrated that they can still compete at the very highest level.”
“The strength of these qualifiers reflects the current strength of the amateur game globally and the prestige of each of the qualifying pathways. The WPBSA has a robust and well-developed global system, which provides direct access to the World Snooker Tour for elite performers.
“There can be no prouder moment for these players, their families and their supporters, than to see that through their exceptional performances they will join snooker’s greatest stage, the Cazoo World Snooker Championship.”
Full WPBSA Qualifiers list:
Hai Long Ma – 2023 WSF Championship Winner
Stan Moody – 2023 WSF Junior Championship Winner / 2023 WSF Championship Runner-up
Liam Davies – 2023 WSF Championship Semi-Finalist
Yang Gao – 2023 WSF Championship Semi-Finalist
Liam Pullen – 2023 WSF Junior Championship Runner-up
Iulian Boiko – 2023 WSF Junior Championship Semi-Finalist
Filips Kalnins – 2023 WSF Junior Championship Semi-Finalist
Martin O’Donnell – 2023 WPBSA Q Tour Winner
Liam Graham – 2023 EBSA European Under-21 Championship Winner
Bulcsú Révész – 2023 EBSA European Under-18 Championship Winner
Siripaporn Nuanthakhamjan – 2023 World Women’s Snooker Champion
Ross Muir – 2023 WPBSA Q Tour No.2
Daniel Wells – 2023 WPBSA Q Tour No.3
Billy Castle – 2023 WPBSA Q Tour No.4
George Pragnell – 2023 WPBSA Q Tour No.5
Farakh Ajaib – 2023 WPBSA Q Tour No.6
All players selected will appear subject to acceptance of their place and any travel restrictions in place. Any replacement players will be selected from a reserve list to include performances at World Snooker Federation, Q Tour and recognised regional events.
Any current professional players who do not enter the tournament will be replaced from the 2022 Q School Order of Merit.
Comment:
Couple of glaring omissions here.
At the time of writing, the European Amateur Snooker Championship was still ongoing. But they could have left a space for the winner.
Also, although they have given spots to the top ranked players on the Q Tour Rankings, they have left out Ashley Carty who won the play off event.
However, there will still be places to fill due to the suspension of the players involved in the current betting scandal. One is an amateur but that still leaves 9 places to fill. Will those places be filled from the Q School Order of Merit?