The 2021 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

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 ...

. 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 May and June 2021 at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield, England with a total 14 players qualifying via the three tournaments and the Order of Merit.

Format

The 2021 Q School consisted of three events. The three events had 196 entries competing for 14 places on the main tour. Four players qualified from each of the three events, with a further two places available from the Q Tour Order of Merit. All matches were the best of seven frames.

Event 1

The first 2021 Q School event was held from 27 May to 1 June 2021 at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield, England. Peter Lines,

Fraser Patrick Fraser Patrick (born 8 November 1985) is a Scottish professional snooker player from Glasgow. Career Patrick started his professional career in 2002 by playing Challenge Tour, where he spent three seasons without success. In 2007 Patrick earn ...

Jackson Page Jackson Page (born 8 August 2001 in Ebbw Vale, Blaenau Gwent) is a Welsh professional snooker player. He is a former European U-21 champion and the former Under-18 World Snooker Champion and in 2017 also became the Under-18 European Snooker Ch ...

and

Yuan Sijun Yuan Sijun (Chinese: 袁思俊; born 29 May 2000) is a Chinese professional snooker player. Career Yuan started to play snooker at the age of 10 and played as a wildcard in many professional tournaments between ages of 13 and 16. Yuan first drew ...

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

Event 2

The second 2021 Q School event was held from 2 to 7 June 2021 at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield, England. Barry Pinches, Craig Steadman, Michael Judge and Alfie Burden qualified. The results of the four final matches are given below. * 4–3 * 4–3 * 4–0 * 4–1

Event 3

The third 2021 Q School event was held from 8 to 13 June 2021 at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield, England.

Ian Burns Ian Burns may refer to: * Ian Burns (snooker player) Ian Burns (born 11 March 1985) is an English professional snooker player. Burns turned professional in 2012 after qualifying in his first attempt of the Q School and gained a two-year tour ...

, Lei Peifan, Dean Young and

Duane Jones Duane L. Jones (April 11, 1937July 22, 1988) was an American actor and theatre director, best known for his lead role as Ben in the 1968 horror film ''Night of the Living Dead''. He was later director of the Maguire Theater at the State Universi ...

qualified. The results of the four final matches are given below. * 4–1 * 4–2 * 4–1 * 4–3

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 directly through the three events. Two places on the main tour were given to the leading two players in the Order of Merit,

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 Mitchell Mann. 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. In addition 48 players were seeded in the

2021–22 Q Tour The 2021–22 Q Tour was a series of snooker tournaments that took place during the 2021–22 snooker season. The Q Tour is the second-tier tour, run by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, for players not on the main World ...

events based on their position in the 2021 Q School Order of Merit. These were the top 40 ranked players not currently on the main tour and a further eight under-21 players outside this top 40. The leading players in the Q School Order of Merit are given below, those with Q in brackets being awarded places on the main tour.

Two-season performance of qualifiers

The following table shows the rankings of the 14 qualifiers from the 2021 Q School, at the end of 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 ...

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

2023–24 snooker season The 2023–24 snooker season is an ongoing professional snooker season with tournaments played between 26 June 2023 and 26 May 2024. Players The World Snooker Tour in the 2023–24 season initially involved 130 professional players, but dro ...

. 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. Because a number of players in the top-64 were suspended the cut-off to retain a place was extended to the top-68.

References

{{2021–22 snooker season Q School (snooker) Snooker competitions in England 2021 in snooker