The 2021 Q School was a series of three

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

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 ...

. 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 about 128 players competing on a circuit of up to 28 tournaments each season. It is administered by World Snooker Ltd, the commercial arm of professional snooker, ...

for the following two seasons. The events took place in May and June 2021 at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

, 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

, England.

Peter Lines Peter Lines (born 11 December 1969) is an English former professional snooker player. He has reached the semi-finals of one ranking tournament, the 2018 Paul Hunter Classic. He reached his highest ranking, 42nd in the world, in 1999. He is the ...

Fraser Patrick Fraser Patrick (born 8 November 1985) is a Scottish former 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 Patric ...

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

and

Yuan Sijun Yuan Sijun (; 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 attention in 201 ...

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

, England.

Barry Pinches Barry Pinches (born 13 July 1970 in Catton, Norwich) is an English former 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 form ...

Craig Steadman Craig Steadman (born 14 July 1982) is an English former 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 ...

Michael Judge Michael Judge (born 12 June 1975 in Dublin) is a former professional snooker player from Ireland. His best performance in a ranking event came in the 2004 Grand Prix, where he reached the semi-finals, and he reached his highest ranking, 24th, f ...

and

Alfie Burden Alfred Burden (born 14 December 1976) is an English former professional snooker player from London. He first turned professional in 1994 and reached his highest world ranking of 38th in the 2001–02 and 2002–03 seasons. His best results in ...

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

, England. Ian Burns,

Lei Peifan Lei Peifan (; born 31 May 2003) is a Chinese professional snooker player. While ranked 84th in the world, he won his first ranking event in December 2024, the 2024 Scottish Open, by defeating Wu Yize 95 in the final. Career In May 2019, Lei ...

, Dean Young and

Duane Jones Duane Lionel Jones (April 11, 1937July 22, 1988) was an American actor. He was 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 University of New ...

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 (born 6 July 1993) is an English former professional snooker player. In May 2013, Miah qualified for the 2013–14 and 2014–15 professional Main Tour as one of four semi-finalists from the first 2013 Q School event. Hammad Mi ...

and

Mitchell Mann Mitchell Dennis Mann (born 26 December 1991) is an English professional snooker player. Career Junior Mann first played snooker aged 9, after being forced to quit football after a diagnosis of Legg–Calvé–Perthes syndrome, a rare disease ...

. 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 S ...

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 was a series of snooker tournaments played from June 2022 to May 2023. Players The World Snooker Tour in the 2022–23 season initially consisted of a field of 131 professional players, but later dropped to 130 w ...

, 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 was a series of snooker tournaments played from 26 June 2023 to 26 May 2024. Players The World Snooker Tour in the 2023–24 season initially involved 130 professional players, but dropped to 129 players. The de ...

. 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) 2021 in English sport 2021 in snooker Sports competitions in Sheffield