The 2020 Q School was a series of three

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...

tournaments held at the start of 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 ...

. An event for amateur players, it served as a qualification event for a place on the professional World Snooker Tour for the following two seasons. The events took place in August 2020 at the English Institute of Sport 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 ...

, England with a total 12 players qualifying via the three tournaments.

Format

Originally planned for June 2020, the series was delayed until August because of 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 identif ...

. The 2020 Q School still consisted of three events but, rather than taking place one after the other, they were all played in a week. All first and second matches for all three events were played on the opening four days, and then the final stages were played on the next three days. The three events had 172 entries competing for 12 places on the main tour. Four players qualified from each of the three events. Rounds 1 and 2 were contested over 5 frames, with later rounds being played over seven frames.

Event 1

The first 2020 Q School event was held from 3 to 7 August 2020 at the English Institute of Sport in

, England. Lee Walker, Peter Devlin,

Simon Lichtenberg Simon Lichtenberg (born 15 December 1997) is a German former professional snooker player. Career Lichtenberg was the German amateur champion in 2016 and won the EBSA European Under-21 Snooker Championships in 2018. With this win he was awarded ...

and Fan Zhengyi qualified. The results of the four final matches are given below. * 4–1 * 4–2 * 4–1 * 4–2

Event 2

The second 2020 Q School event was held from 4 to 8 August 2020 at the English Institute of Sport in

, England.

Jamie Jones Jamie Jones may refer to: * Jamie Jones (DJ), Welsh DJ, producer and two-time DJ Awards winner * Jamie Jones (footballer) (born 1989), English professional footballer for Wigan Athletic * Jamie Jones (snooker player) (born 1988), Welsh professional ...

, Zak Surety, Oliver Lines and

Ben Hancorn Ben Hancorn (born 24 May 1982) is an English former professional snooker player. Career In 2008, Hancorn was the runner up in the English Amateur Championship, losing the final to David Grace. Following this defeat Hancorn stopped playing snooke ...

qualified. The results of the four final matches are given below. * 4–0 * 4–1 * 4–2 * 4–0

Event 3

The third 2020 Q School event was held from 5 to 9 August 2020 at the English Institute of Sport in

, England. Rory McLeod, Jamie Wilson,

Farakh Ajaib Farakh Ajaib (born 3 February 1991) is a Pakistani professional snooker player from Lancashire. Career In 2018, Ajaib was crowned the inaugural East Lancashire Snooker Championship winner. He was a ‘top-up’ player for several main tour eve ...

and

Steven Hallworth Steven Hallworth (born 1 December 1995) is an English former professional snooker player. He is the only ever qualified professional from Lincoln. He is a practice partner of Stuart Carrington. Career Junior Hallworth started playing snooke ...

qualified. The results of the four final matches are given below. * 4–2 * 4–3 * 4–2 * 4–2

Q School Order of Merit

A Q School Order of Merit was produced for players who failed to gain a place on the main tour. The Order of Merit was used to top up fields for the

where an event failed to attract the required number of entries. The rankings in the Order of Merit were based on the number of frames won in the three Q School events. Players who received a bye into the second round were awarded three points for round one. Where players were equal, those who won the most frames in the first event were ranked higher and, if still equal, the player with most frames in event two. The Order of Merit was intended to be used to give priority places for the new

Q Tour The Q Tour is a series of snooker tournaments, immediately below the level of the World Snooker Main Tour. The tour originally ran between the 1994–95 season and the 2004–05 season as professional non-ranking events. Due to the large numb ...

which was announced in July 2020. However the tour was delayed by a year and only started in 2021–22. The leading players in the Q School Order of Merit are given below.

Two-season performance of qualifiers

The following table shows the rankings of the 12 qualifiers from the 2020 Q School, at the end of the

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 ...

, the end of their two guaranteed seasons on the tour, together with their tour status for the

2022–23 snooker season The 2022–23 snooker season is a professional snooker season with tournaments played between June 2022 and May 2023. Players The World Snooker Tour in the 2022–23 season initially consisted of a field of 131 professional players, but later ...

. Players in the top-64 of the rankings retained their place on the tour while those outside the top-64 lost their place unless they qualified under a different category.

References

{{2020–21 snooker season Q School (snooker) 2020 in English sport 2020 in snooker Sports competitions in Sheffield