Latest news with #LiamPullen
Metro
27-05-2025
- Sport
- Metro
Pullen: In snooker only the strongest survive so you have to become one of them
Twice coming through Q School by just 19 years old is some effort and Liam Pullen is rightfully proud of the achievement, although he hopes never to be back there again. The teenager first won his place on the World Snooker Tour in 2023, but after a difficult second season in particular, he was back at Q School this month fighting for his professional future. An impressive run of five wins meant he is straight back on tour, although it is never straightforward in the cauldron of Q School. Pullen made 73 in the first frame of his final match with Umut Dikme, only to lose it despite the German requiring two snookers. Not the best start to the all-important contest. 'I went to the toilet, gave myself a proper speaking to,' Pullen told Metro. 'I won't say what I was saying to myself, but it was severe. I knew that this is do or die.' The teenager would win the next three frames and get over the line with a 4-2 win. 'I'm really proud of myself and happy with how I've come through,' he said. 'There's a lot on the line, it feels like the be all or end all. Otherwise it's one more year to try and get back on again. 'I think Q School is a completely different thing to playing in the World Championship or anything. 'In the semi-finals, I was 3-0 up against Alfie [Davies]. I thought, 'Oh right, this is good, I'm confident.' Then I just hit a brick wall and it was awful. It was just so hard. 'Hopefully, I don't have to go back there for, well…forever. Now I've got to kick on and improve as a player and learn.' After an encouraging first season on tour, the second was a bit of a disaster, winning just £7,500 in prize money and feeling confidence drain away. 'It was much harder the second year,' he said. 'Just a lot of knocks and I sort of got into a rhythm of losing. It was horrible, to be honest. 'Maybe I lost a tiny bit of enjoyment because of constant losing. It felt like…it was just really hard. 'But you've got to come out of it the other side. There's no point sulking, because that's going to get you nowhere, sadly. I wish sulking did get you somewhere because snooker players, in that department we're right up there. I think that's just the nature of the game, how hard it is.' Far from deterred by his tough couple of seasons on tour, Pullen has banked the experience and feels ready to go again as an improved player. 'I think I've learned a lot from those two years,' he said. 'Now I know what to do, know what the craic when I'm turning up at all these different places. I look forward to the challenge ahead and I'll try my best and I'll be ready for it.' The Yorkshireman has fixed the problem of losing a 'tiny bit of enjoyment' as his passion for the game is what drives his tireless practice at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds and ambition for decades more to come on tour. 'I've really enjoyed just doing what I want to do for the rest of my life,' he said. 'That's what I want to do, play snooker for the rest of my life. 'I think those last two years are a stepping stone and I've really learned a lot. I've got to use it to my advantage and try and correct things I did wrong. 'In snooker you have to sink or swim. Only the strongest survive, so you've got to become one of them.' MORE: China's Bai Yulu retains World Women's Snooker Championship MORE: Barry Pinches names career highlight, biggest regret and 'crying shame' in snooker MORE: Alfie Burden talks World Seniors redemption, online abuse and Q School bloodbath
Metro
27-05-2025
- Sport
- Metro
Q School becomes last chance saloon after four survive first event
The final Q School event begins on Monday as the remaining players enter the last chance saloon to join the World Snooker Tour for next season. Four survived the nerve-shredding tension of the first event on Monday, with the quartet of Liam Pullen, Alexander Ursenbacher, Mateusz Baranowski and Oliver Brown winning two-year tour cards in Leicester. Poland's Baranowski is the only first-time professional of the four and caps off an impressive season on the amateur circuit with a move up to the elite level. The 27-year-old credits his role as a coach with junior players in Poland for his improved temperament at the table. Speaking to WST after securing professional status for the first time, he said: 'It is a crazy feeling. I didn't play my best game, but I was fighting and I was a lot more confident than last year. This is the first time I've come here and believed that I could do it. 'I've always wanted to play with professionals. This was my dream 20 years ago, when I started playing. To be honest I lost hope and I stopped playing in a lot of tournaments. It was always the same. I was going to tournaments and playing 10 percent of my game. 'In the past sometimes I have given up, but when I started coaching I knew they would be watching me. I needed to always play my best, even if I play badly. I tell them to focus and just give everything. I decided that I have to do the same. That has worked and I have been more focussed. I always say to my students, don't give up and fight. Make sure you do your best.' "I have to do what I tell them… don't give up, fight!" ❤️Mateusz Baranowski coaches Poland's Junior Team — and it's their inspiration that helped secure a maiden pro tour card! 💪🇵🇱Watch interviews with all four #QSchool winners on WST Play. — WST (@WeAreWST) May 27, 2025 Switzerland's Ursenbacher has long been seen as a player who can do damage in the game, reaching a ranking semi-final as long ago as 2017, reaching number 41 in the world rankings and beating Ronnie O'Sullivan on tour three times. However, this is now the third time the 29-year-old has come through Q School and he hopes that a change in mindset and discipline will mean he will not be back scrapping for professional status again. 'I've changed my mindset a bit. I just can't keep doing this for much longer. I don't know how I keep doing it, my record in Q School is quite good. I'm just really proud and I want to make the next step now,' he said. 'I want to do what I dreamed of as a kid. I'm getting older and I see all these youngsters achieving stuff. You see the likes of Xintong winning the World Championship. At some time you have to stop kidding yourself. 'You can talk all you want, but actions count and words mean nothing. I've always said what I think and what I feel, but discipline was a big problem for me. I know if I put the work in I will get results.' 30-year-old Brown is the oldest of a young set of winners in Q School Event 1, returning for a second stint on tour after dropping off in 2024. Pullen, still just 19 years old, comes through Q School for a second time, immediately returning to the pro ranks after losing his place at the end of the 2024/25 season. Both Asia-Oceania Q School events have now been completed as well, with Thailand's Chatchapong Nasa, 27, and the Chinese trio of Liu Wenwei, 21, Xu Yichen, 38, and Zhao Hanyang, 25, winning their places on tour. All four will be making their debuts on the professional tour in the coming season. Q School Event Two now runs from May 27 to June 1 in Leicester, with four more two-year tour cards available for the hopefuls. Picking a quartet of survivors will be extremely difficult, with a number of hugely experienced former professionals still in the field. The likes of Anthony Hamilton, David Grace, Alfie Burden, Barry Pinches, Hammad Miah, Stuart Carrington and Ian Burns all have a wealth of experience on the World Snooker Tour and are fighting to return there. There are also plenty of players looking to join the professional circuit for the first time who are more than capable of doing so, with three of them losing in the final round of Event One. More Trending Germany's Umut Dikme was beaten by Pullen, Ryan Davies lost to Ursenbacher and Patrick Whelan was downed by Baranowski. The wide range of remaining contenders – from 14-year-old Shaun Liu to 69-year-old Tony Knowles – will be whittled down to just four survivors on Sunday. After Q School is wrapped up, just one more place on the 2025/26 professional tour is still up for grabs, with the All Africa Championship played later in June and the winner offered a two-year tour card. Table One of Q School is available to watch on WST's YouTube, while two tables are available to stream on WST Play. MORE: Barry Pinches names career highlight, biggest regret and 'crying shame' in snooker MORE: Alfie Burden talks World Seniors redemption, online abuse and Q School bloodbath MORE: The 10 greatest graduates from snooker's Q School as latest hopefuls attend class
