Q School Event Three Result - The Last Four Graduates

The last Q School event finished! The last four men came out to grab tour places are Norway's Kurt Maflin, David Gilbert and two tour debutants Adam Duffy & Stuart Carrington.

Reports of the previous two events:

• Q School Event One Round 1 Round-up - Power of Chinese Army

• Q School Event One Result - Welcome back boys!

• Q School Event Two Result - Hope of Chinese stars

Kurt Maflin from Norway qualified for final stage of China Open 2011 in March. He led Ding Junhui 4-1 before losing 4-5 in the first round. Although he had qualified for China Open but he did not have enough points to stay in the tour. He dropped off the tour this season. Nevertheless, Maflin qualified for tour again by beating Martin O'Donnell 4-1 with 66, 86, 85 & 128! Great win for him :-) 

Life is never easy for a player lives outside the UK. Maflin is considering about moving to the UK full time. "Living in Norway makes it a hell of a lot harder for me. I don't have anyone to practise with there, so I come over to the UK four or five days before each tournament. I've got a girlfriend there, we've been together ten years and we have a little boy. I am thinking about coming over to the UK full time as it would help my snooker, but it's something I need to discuss with the family when I get back to Norway."

Third Time lucky for David Gilbert! Gilbert was gutted to be defeated twice in the last round of the two previous Q School events. However, Gilbert did it in the third time, regain a tour place by beating Allan Taylor 'The Assassin' 4-1. Gilbert fell off the tour at the end of this season. He once reached last 16 of Welsh Open 2009, beating Mark Williams & Joe Perry before he lost to Mark Selby. 

"In the last couple of years I've had a terrible attitude and taken snooker for granted. I hardly practised and I didn't enter the EPTC events so I put myself in the position of dropping off the tour. I realise now how much I love snooker and I want to give it a proper go. I'm going to enter all of the events, and the way the rankings work now, you can see yourself making progress within the season."

Cliff Thorburn handed Paul
Hunter Scholarship Award
 to Adam Duffy in the Crucible, 2009.

22-year-old Adam Duffy will make his debut on the tour next season. He beaten former Scottish Open winner David Gray 4-2 after being 0-2 down. It's a pity for losing of David Gray, who suffered from final round defeat in the Event Two. Gray failed to get back on the tour. Anyway, it's cool to have a new face on the tour :-) 

"It's not sunk in yet that I'm on the main tour," said Duffy, who won the Paul Hunter Scholarship in 2009 to train free for a year at the Academy. "After that year I had a bit of a lapse, but recently I've been working hard and it has paid off." Duffy added. "I only live close by so it will be great playing in the World Championship qualifiers next season because a lot of friends will come down to support me. My target is to get into the top 64."

21-year-old Grimsby boy Stuart Carrington was the last graduate of the Q School. Carrington claimed a 4-2 victory over Stephen Craigie with breaks of 50, 66 and 83. He also had a brilliant run in the event, only lost four frames in the whole event. Congrats for this young man to make his first appearance on the tour! :-)

"It's a dream come true to turn pro, especially as I have come very close before," said Carrington. "In 2009 I finished second to Jimmy Robertson on the EASB tour - if I'd won a couple more frames over the season I would have been top and got a main tour place. Next season I'm just going to try to win as many matches as I can and stay on the tour, then the following season I'll be aiming to
push on up the rankings."




Full results of Event Three can be found here


Quarter-Final Results:                                 Last 16 Results:

Kurt Maflin 4-1 Martin O'Donnell Stuart Carrington 4-2 Stephen Craigie Adam Duffy 4-2 David Gray Allan Taylor 1-4 David Gilbert

Kurt Maflin 4-0 David McLellan Martin O'Donnell 4-3 Gary Wilson Ian Burns 1-4 Stuart Carrington Zhang Anda 2-4 Stephen Craigie Adam Duffy 4-2 Alex Davies Luke Simmonds 0-4 David Gray Kyren Wilson 1-4 Allan Taylor Brijesh Damani 1-4 David Gilbert

Three Events of Q School have finished, 12 winners who got tickets for 2011/2012 are as follow:

• Event 1: David Grace (England), Robin Hull (Finland), Andrew Norman (England), Adam Wicheard (England)
• Event 2: Simon Bedford (England), David Morris (Ireland), Tian Pengfei (China), Li Yan (China)
• Event 3: Kurt Maflin (Norway), Stuart Carrington (England), Adam Duffy (England), David Gilbert (England)

That's a wrap! :-)

New Ranking event stages in Australia this summer

A new ranking event, Australian Goldfields Open is confirmed to stage in Australia this summer. The Victorian Government, IMG Worldwide and World Snooker signed a three-year deal for this new tournament. The tournament will run from July 18-24, 2011 at Bendigo Stadium, Victoria.  

Neil Robertson from Australia, 2010 World Champion

Australian Goldfields Open is the first ever ranking event to be staged in Australia. It also replaces Shanghai Masters which holds in September to become the first ranking tournament of the season.

The 7-day tournament will feature 32 players including the top 16 seeds and 16 by qualifying in June 27-30 at World Snooker Academy in Sheffield. 

Neil Robertson, 2010 World Champion and currently ranked No 5, said: "This is a long-standing dream come true for me, as I am sure it is for many snooker players and fans in Australia. To have a world ranking event in my home state will be just unbelievable and I hope to get a lot of support.

"I know some of the other players are excited about coming to Australia and I'm looking forward to showing them around. It's fantastic to see snooker becoming much more of a global game - it looks like we'll be clocking up a lot of air miles in the next few years!" 

Neil Robertson joined the announcement of Australian Goldfields Open

World Snooker Chairman Barry Hearn is delighted that a world ranking event will be staged in Australia for the next three years. "We're absolutely thrilled to be going to Australia for a world ranking event for the first time. Snooker is going global like never before as we also have new events in Thailand and Brazil within the next few months, plus many more in the pipeline.'

Many of snooker's top stars are looking forward to the tournament. The newly crowned World Champion John Higgins said: "It's great news that we are going to Australia. I won my first tournament, the Australian Masters, over there when I was 18, and I've not been back since. I'm delighted to have the chance to return for the tournament. I'll be playing in the World Cup in Thailand and going straight from there to Australia so it's going to be a brilliant time!"

Snooker went globalization in this few years. We had a new ranking event, German Masters staged in Berlin, Germany in 2010. Moreover, we will have two more overseas events in 2011/2012 season - World Cup will return after 10 years in this July in Thailand along with New Brazilian Masters in Brazil. 

July will be a busy month for snooker fans and players! Australian Goldfields Open follow closely to be held after Wuxi Classic (China) & World Cup's return in July this year. So we will have plenty of snooker to watch! :)

The event will be broadcast live on Fox Sports in Australia. It will be also be showed globally in 66 countries around the world including United Kingdom and China! (Hopefully Eurosport will do the live coverage - not yet confirmed)

I am really pleased to see 2010 World Champion, Neil Robertson to play in his home country :) I am sure Australia will be the next target for globalization of snooker! I wish snooker can be promoted down under by this great opportunity :)

Q School Event Two Result - Hope of Chinese stars

Q School event two just ended, we have four more qualifiers to go main tour in the coming season. Two Chinese stars Li Yan & Tian Pengfei successfully came through while Ireland's David Morris & Simon Bedford paired to win in a decider. Congrats to all of them!


Tian Pengfei who was once on main circuit, he beaten David Gibert 4-2 with 72 and 66 to earn a ticket for 2011/2012 season. Tian Pengfei surprisingly defeated Ronnie O'Sullivan 5-3 as a wildcard player on last year China Open. He also won BTV Cup which was an international invitational event by beating Ryan Day in the final.


It is a great victory for Tian to get back on main tour. Bad luck for David Gilbert who was also defeated in the last round of previous event. Maybe there will be a third time lucky for Gilbert?


Li Yan is another Chinese player who came through. Li Yan has never been on the main tour. However now he is a main tour player at the age of 19. He struck a 4-1 victory over former Scottish Open champion David Gray with breaks of 79, 54.

"I will try my best and my aim will be to stay on the tour," he said through an interpreter. "I'm very happy now, of course. I didn't play my best in this event, but I was confident. David Gray is a good player but I felt that I could beat him."

Ireland's David Morris won 4-3 over Michael Wild from 1-3 down. Morris played a Last 32 match of World Open 2010 on TV. Unfortunately he lost to tournament eventual winner Neil Robertson 1-3 in that match. Morris dropped off the main tour under the new ranking system. But I am happy to see Morris retain his tour place!

"With the new rankings points system last season, I didn't know where I was. One minute I was 55th and the next 70th. By the time I realised I was in danger of dropping off the tour, it was too late. "

But to have this chance to get back on straight away, and to take it, is perfect for me. I've still got the hunger to win," added Morris, now set for his sixth consecutive season on the pro circuit. "Last season I treated the PTCs like Pro-Am events, but from now on I will treat them properly because they are important."

Last but not least Simon Bedford is another winner. Simon Bedford came through to win in a decider against Lee Walker despite leading 2-0 and 3-2 in the match. Bedford qualified for Last 32 of 1998 World Championship  and 2008 Grand Prix. I believe Bedford is ready for the coming season!

"Five years ago I gave the game up, then (coach) Steve Prest helped me get back into it and I got into the top 64. When Steve died I lost my love of the game for a while. But I'm back on my feet now and ready to give the tour a good crack next season."

Q School Event Three starts tomorrow. It will be the last event for players to qualify for 2011/2012 season. Who will be on the way to become the last four?

Full Result of Event Two can be found here

Q School Event Three Draw & Matches Schedule can be found here

Live Scores from World Snooker

Quarter-Final Results:                                 Last 16 Results:

David Gray 1-4 Li Yan Michael Wild 3-4 David Morris Lee Walker 3-4 Simon Bedford David Gilbert 2-4 Tian Pengfei

David Gray 4-3 Li Hang Kyren Wilson 3-4 Li Yan Michael Wild 4-2 Lee Spick Adam Duffy 0-4 David Morris Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon 3-4 Lee Walker Joel Walker 1-4 Simon Bedford  David Gilbert 4-0 Stephen Rowlings  Tian Penfei 4-0 Sean O'Sullivan

Earn a tour place via PTCs!

It must be a great news for amateurs! Amateurs can earn a tour place via PTCs by finishing in top 8 on the order of merit list after 12 PTC events have completed! Professional players can also qualify via this method if they rank outside top 64 of world ranking list at the end of 2011/2012 season.

Do you want to play the top players? :) Here's a chance!

Top 8 order of merit list was only suitable for professional players last year. But this year WPBSA revolved this criteria, providing amateurs to qualify for the tour in another way apart from Q School.

Players only need to pay £100 to enter each PTC event, grabbing a chance to win £10000 (winner's share) of each event! Professional players can also earn ranking points by winning each round.
              
Ranking points distribution: (Each event consists of 128 players)

Last 64	Last 32	Last 16	QF	SF	Runner-up	Winner
360	560	760	1000	1280	1600	2000

World Snooker also revealed the dates & venue for first four PTC events.

• PTC 1: June 20-22 at World Snooker Academy, Sheffield
• PTC 2: August 8-10 at World Snooker Academy, Sheffield
• PTC 3: August 19-20 at World Snooker Academy, Sheffield
• PTC 4: August 26-28 at Fuerth, Germany

Eurosport will provide live coverage on one table of PTC 4 :-) So we will can watch live action of the boys from Germany! 

PTC series consists of 12 events, which will be held in Sheffield and around Europe. All matches are in Best of 7. The top 24 players who win the most prize money in the PTC series will be on the order of merit. It will be ranked by the prize money that players win, also they need to at least play in 6 PTC events (3 in UK & 3 in Europe).

Those 24 players will qualify for PTC Grand Final (14-18 March, 2012) in running for a major ranking title. Winner can earn a prize of £70000 :-)

Ranking points distribution for PTC Grand Final:

Last 24	Last 16	QF	SF	Runner-up	Winner
800	1140	1500	1920	2400	3000

If you are an amateur, do grab a chance to join the PTC events! You may get a chance to play top players and learn from them! Closing date for entry of PTC 1-4 is 7 June 2011. 

Click here for Entry Pack & more details about PTC Events

WPBSA Statement on Maguire v Burnett in 2008 UK Championship

The Scottish Crown Counsel has finished the investigation on the match between Stephen Maguire v Jamie Burnett in 2008 UK Championship. They will not take any action on the players due to insufficient evidence. However WPBSA will handle the case now and the disciplinary committee will investigate the case. 


It is the first round match of 2008 UK Championship. Maguire is the runner up of the tournament in the previous year. The match is suspicious to be match-fixed in betting. Jamie Burnett had chance to reduce the scoreline to 8-4 but he failed to pot the last black in the 12th frame. Eventually Stephen Maguire won the match 9-3. 


Bookmakers had received large amount of bets from newly opened accounts in Glagsow, all betted on Maguire to win 9-3 which was the correct scoreline. The bookies stated that  there was no money on Maguire to win 9-4 or 9-2. A number of top bookies suspended betting on the match afterwards.


For more details about this issue, you can read Scots snooker stars Stephen Maguire and Jamie Burnett in betting probe written by Neil Goulding

" Following a full and comprehensive investigation into a match at the UK Championship in December 2008, the Scottish Crown Counsel has decided that there is insufficient evidence to justify a criminal prosecution. 

This case has now been referred to the WPBSA for consideration of disciplinary proceedings against the two members who contested the match, Stephen Maguire and Jamie Burnett. 

WPBSA Chairman Jason Ferguson said: "We are treating this case very seriously. We will now be given access to the evidence connected with the case, and our disciplinary committee will review that evidence thoroughly." 

          WPBSA Statement issued on 18th May, 2011

Q School Event One Result - Welcome back boys!

Q School Event One came to the end after six days' competition. It produced four winners, four former professional player including David Grace, Adam Wicheard from England, Robin Hull and Andrew Norman.

David Grace

First man through is David Grace, he defeated Gareth Allen, Mitchel Travis, Sydney Wilson, Jamie O'Neill and Zhang Anda to regain a place in main tour. Grace turned pro in 2008 but fell out at the end of his debut season. His opponent Zhang Anda was unluckly to be beaten after his magnificent run in the event.  

Adam Wicheard

Another player who qualify for the main tour is On Q Promotions player, Adam Wicheard from England. He turned pro last year but failed to stay in the main tour. However, the 24-year-old youngman will return to the tour again :-)

Robin Hull

Finland's Robin Hull is back. Hull turned pro in 1992 before he announced his retirement in 2008 due to health problems. Hull was once ranked 31 and reached two ranking quarter-finals in his professional career. Hull joined Q School to try reentering the game - and he did it! Welcome back Robin after three years' waiting! :-)

Andrew Norman

We will have another familiar face return to the circuit. Andrew Norman is the man. He dropped off the tour in 2010 after eight years professional career. Norman reached Last 16 of Grand Prix ( World Open ) for two consecutive years in 2005 and 2006. He joined PTCs last year and reached Last 16 in Gloucester. He had a hard time after dropping out of the tour but now he is returned. 

We have four former pros return to the tour via Q School. Event 2 starts tomorrow, which four lucky guys can follow their footsteps?

Full results for Event One can be found here

Q School Event Two Draw & Matches Schedule can be found here

Live Scores from World Snooker

Quarter-Final results:                                           Round four results: 

Andrew Norman 4-3 Chen Zhe Zhang Anda 1 - 4 David Grace Adam Wicheard 4 - 1 Fraser Patrick Robin Hull 4 - 3 David Gilbert

Andrew Norman 4 - 2 Lee Walker Ian Burns 2 - 4 Chen Zhe Kyren Wilson 1 - 4 Zhang Anda David Grace 4 - 2 Jamie O'Neill Tian Pengfei 2 - 4 Adam Wicheard Fraser Patrick 4 - 0 Allan Taylor Gary Wilson 1 - 4 Robin Hull Reanne Evans 1 - 4 David Gilbert

Q School Event One Round 1 Round-up - Power of Chinese Army

To learn more about 'What is Q School', please refer to Q School Event One - Passports to the Big Time.

With the withdrawal of several players, including Luca Brecel, Yu Delu, Sam Baird, James Wattana. Their opponents got a walkover to the next round.

Chinese players who joined did quite well in the first round. Zhang Anda won 4-1 over Alex Taubman with 116; His fellow Tian Pengfei also made a century 118 in the match that he beaten Alex O'Donoghue. Mei Xiwen beats Li Yan by 4-2 while Chen Zhe defeated Ben Harrison by 4-1. 

Joel Walker & Ronnie O'Sullivan in Rileys Future Stars 

However, one of the chinese army lost in the first round. Li Hang, a wildcard player reached Last 16 in China Open last month by beating two world champions Ken Doherty & Graeme Dott. Li was beaten 3-4 by Joel Walker, the picked winner of 'Riley's Future Stars of Snooker' by Ronnie O'Sullivan last year. Walker was 0-2 behind but he survived to win 4-3.

Six-time Ladies World Champion Reanne Evans, she got her first victory in man's professional circuit. Evans won 4-0 over Sachin Plaha to enter the next round. Congrats to Reanne! :-)

Mike Hallett

There is a first round match between two snooker leading players in 80s' & 90s - Mike Hallett v Tony Knowles. Hallett won comfortably 4-0 against Knowles despite in the last frame. In the last frame, Knowles cameback from behind to force a black respot. Hallett ends the thriller by potting the respotted black to end the match. Knowles will have an early sit back before next week. 

Former professional players including Lee Spick, Lee Walker, David Gray were also the winners in the first round. They aim at regaining a place in the tour.

Round 2 follows up after first round finished. We will have four players to qualify for 2011/2012 tour by reaching semi-final of event one :-)

Full Draw & Playing Schedule of Q School Event One can be found here

Live Scores & Results can be found here

Q School Event One - Round 1 full results

1. Stephen Groves 1-4 Andrew Norman 2. James McBain 3-4 Lee Spick 3. Robert James 2-4 Luke Simmonds 4. Michael Wild 4-0 Hans Blanckaert 5. Stephen Ormerod 3-4 Lee Walker 6. Stephen Rowlings 3-4 Ian Glover 7. Simon Bedford 4-1 Shaun Wilkes 8. David Gray 4-2 David Singh 9. Sam Harvey w/o Luca Brecel 10. Mitchell Mann 4-2 Zak Surety 11. Jamie Clarke 1-4 Ian Burns 12. James Silverwood 1-4 Stuart Carrington 13. Oliver Brown 1-4 Charlie Walters 14. Ben Harrison 1-4 Chen Zhe 15. Lucky Vatnani w/o Michael Wasley 16. Nick Jennings w/o Yu DeLu 17. Vinnie Calabrese 4-0 James Hill 18. Jak Jones 4-2 Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon 19. Saquib Nasir 2-4 Kyren Wilson 20. David Portman w/o Sam Baird 21. Zhang Anda 4-1 Alex Taubman 22. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 4-2 Stephen Craigie 23. Joel Walker 4-3 Li Hang 24. Lasse Munstermann 3-4 Mitchell Travis 25. David Grace 4-3 Gareth Allen 26. Robbie Williams 4-1 Adam Duffy 27. Ryan Causton 3-4 Sydney Wilson 28. Li Yan 2-4 Mei Xiwen 29. Gareth Coates w/o Kishan Hirani 30. Rune Kampe 0-4 Jamie O'Neil

31. Duane Jones 3-4 Alex Davies 32. Alex O'Donoghue 0-4 Tian Pengfei 33. Lee Page 4-2 David McLellan 34. John Astley w/o Aditya Mehta 35. Shahram Changezi 4-1 Marc Harman 36. Michael Leslie 4-0 Simon Bevz 37. Adam Wicheard 4-1 Tony Else 38. James Burrett 1-4 Bash Maqsood 39. Bhavesh Sodha 0-4 Fraser Patrick 40. Augusto Ruckauf 0-4 Christopher Norbury 41. Robert Valiant 4-0 Matthew Simpson 42. Ben Judge 1-4 Jamie Walker 43. Lyndon Gordon 0-4 Liam Monk 44. Jason Tart 2-4 James Loft 45. Allan Taylor w/o Brent Kolbeck 46. Antony Parsons 4-3 Shehzad Iqbal 47. Manish Jain 1-4 Bobby Cruickshanks 48. Stephen Ellis 2-4 Gary Wilson 49. Justin Astley 4-0 Najm Khan 50. Kurt Maflin 3-4 Craig Steadman 51. George Marter 1-4 Robin Hull 52. Mohammed Raoof 3-4 Craig Barber 53. James Wattana w/o Sean O'Sullivan 54. Tony Knowles 0-4 Mike Hallett 55. Gareth Edwards 0-4 Dean Venables 56. Sachin Plaha 0-4 Reanne Evans 57. James Welsh w/o Shahbaaz Khan 58. David Gilbert 4-1 Steve Judd 59. Lee Stephens 1-4 Martin O'Donnell 60. Phil O'Kane 0-4 Jeff Cundy

Century Breaks 

118 - Tian Pengfei
116 - Zhang Anda
114 - Fraser Patrick
114 - Steve Judd
113 - Jamie O'Neill
108 - Michael Lesile