The 2018 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

2018–19 snooker season The 2018–19 snooker season was a series of professional snooker tournaments played between 10 May 2018 and 6 May 2019. The season was made up of ranking tournaments, non-ranking tournaments and variant tournaments. In total ...

. An event for amateur players, it served as a qualification event for a place on the professional

World Snooker Tour The World Snooker Tour (WST) is the main professional snooker tour, consisting of approximately 128 players competing on a circuit of up to 28 tournaments each season. The World Snooker Tour is administered by World Snooker Ltd, the commercial ar ...

for the following two seasons. The events took place in May 2018 at the Meadowside Leisure Centre in

Burton-upon-Trent Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a market town in the borough of East Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire, England, close to the border with Derbyshire. In 2011, it had a population of 72,299. The d ...

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

Format

The 2018 Q School consisted of three events. The three events had 202 entries competing for 12 places on the main tour, four players qualifying from each of the three events. All matches were the best of seven frames.

Event 1

The first 2018 Q School event was held from 14 to 19 May 2018 at the Meadowside Leisure Centre in

, England.

Jak Jones Jak Jones (born 29 July 1993) is a Welsh professional snooker player. Jones was born in Cwmbran, Wales. He became a professional in 2010 at the age of 16, by winning the 2010 European Under 19 Snooker Championship in Malta. Career Professio ...

Sam Baird Sam Baird (born 17 June 1988) is an English former professional snooker player. He first entered the professional tour for the 2009–10 snooker season, 2009/10 season, by winning the EBSA Pro-Ticket Tour Play-offs. Career 2011/2012 season Bair ...

Hammad Miah Hammad Miah ( bn, হাম্মাদ মিঞা; born 6 July 1993) is a British professional snooker player of Bangladeshi-origin. In May 2013, Miah qualified for the 2013–14 and 2014–15 professional Main Tour as one of four semi- ...

and

Sam Craigie Sam Craigie (born 29 December 1993) is an English professional snooker player from Newcastle. He enjoyed a successful junior career before turning professional in 2011. Career Early career Craigie qualified for the 2011/2012 Main Tour after ...

qualified. All four players who qualified had previously lost their professional status after the

2018 World Snooker Championship The 2018 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2018 Betfred World Snooker Championship) was a professional snooker tournament held from 21 April to 7 May 2018 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. Hosted by the World Prof ...

. In one match,

Barry Pinches Barry Pinches (born 13 July 1970 in Catton, Norwich) is an English professional snooker player, recognisable for his bright and flamboyant waistcoats, which usually feature the yellow and green colours of Norwich City F.C. He is a former top 3 ...

played his son Luke. The results of the four final matches are given below. * 4–2 * 4–2 * 4–0 * 4–0

Event 2

The second 2018 Q School event was held from 20 to 25 May 2018 at the Meadowside Leisure Centre in

, England. Jordan Brown,

Craig Steadman Craig Steadman (born 14 July 1982) is an English professional snooker player. Career Early career Steadman began his professional career by playing Challenge Tour in 2001, at the time the second-level professional tour. He reached the quarte ...

Lu Ning Lu Ning (, born 1 January 1994 in Jilin) is a professional snooker player from the People's Republic of China. Lu is among ten Chinese players currently suspended from the professional tour amid a match-fixing investigation. Career Lu's firs ...

and

Zhao Xintong Zhao Xintong (; born 3 April 1997) is a Chinese professional snooker player. Long considered one of the brightest talents in the game, he won his first ranking title (also his first Triple Crown title) at the 2021 UK Championship, defeating Luc ...

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

Event 3

The third 2018 Q School event was held from 26 to 31 May 2018 at the Meadowside Leisure Centre in

, England.

Thor Chuan Leong Thor Chuan Leong (; born 24 March 1988) is a Malaysian former professional snooker player. He is commonly referred to as Rory Thor. Career Thor, based in Penang, Malaysia represented his country at the 2006 & 2010 Asian Games and in the ...

Kishan Hirani Kishan H. Hirani (born 2 June 1992) is a Welsh former professional snooker player. Career Hirani qualified for his first professional tournament in the 2017 Paul Hunter Classic, winning three matches. He played Chris Wakelin in the first round, ...

, Andy Lee and

Ashley Carty Ashley Carty (born 17 July 1995) is a former professional snooker player based in Thurcroft, Rotherham Rotherham () is a large minster and market town in South Yorkshire, England. The town takes its name from the River Rother which then ...

qualified. The results of the four final matches are given below. * 4–1 * 4–2 * 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 four 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 used to give priority places for the new

Challenge Tour The Challenge Tour is the second-tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European Tour and, as with on the main European Tour and the European Senior Tour, some of the events are played outside Europe. History The ...

which was played during the

. 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 2018 Q School, at the end of the

2019–20 snooker season The 2019–20 snooker season was a series of professional snooker tournaments played between 9 May 2019 and 22 August 2020. In total, 47 events were held during the season: however, the ending of the season was highly disrupted by the ...

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

. 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

{{2018–19 snooker season Q School (snooker) 2018 in English sport 2018 in snooker Sport in Burton upon Trent