Latest news with #QSchool
RTÉ News
2 days ago
- Sport
- RTÉ News
Fergal Quinn secures two-year WST tour card through Q School
Fergal Quinn has secured a two year card on the World Snooker Tour after coming through Q School over the weekend. He defeated world number 96 Dean Young 4-1 in Leicester in the deciding match, having earlier seen off Ashley Carty - who finished last season at 68 in the world rankings - Keith Keldie, Sean O'Sullivan and Ronnie Sullivan. It gives the Tyrone native the opportunity to compete at the elite level of the sport as he looks to build on his progress in the amateur game, including reaching the semi-finals of the WSF World Amateur Championship in Morocco in January. Speaking after securing the tour card, he admitted that he had contemplated his future in the game after so much disappointment over the last half decade. "I'm just so excited to see what the next two years has to offer, to be honest," he told "After this Q School I was genuinely unsure what direction I was going to go down with my life path. I'm 25 years-old, another year, 26, 27... I have big ambitions for myself in my life in general. "Sometimes it's hard to know and eventually you have to trust that snooker is for me. This game keeps pulling me back in. Maybe I was going to walk away from this game for six months "Now it's pulled me back in, I'm on the tour - it's a bit crazy, to be honest. Now it gives me something to focus on for the next two years, simplifying my life a lot. "I'm a professional snooker player now and that's all I have to focus on." Quinn has been trying to secure a tour card since 2018 and becomes the second Irish player to earn a debut season on the tour after Leone Crowley, who managed it by winning the WSF Junior Championship in January. Antrim's Mark Allen is the top ranked Irish player at number 10, with Cork's Aaron Hill set to start the new campaign at 49 in the world. Also on tour in the 2025/2026 season will be Jordan Brown, Robbie McGuigan and 1997 world champion Ken Doherty.
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
China's Bai Yulu retains World Women's Snooker Championship
Bai Yulu has won her second World Women's Snooker Championship, beating Mink Nutcharut in the final, just as she did last year. The 21-year-old beat the Thai star 6-4 in Dongguan to cement her place as the leading player in the women's game. China continue to boast the world champion in Zhao Xintong after his triumph at the Crucible and the women's world champ thanks to Bai's success on home soil. Bai beat three-time former champion Ng On Yee in the semi-finals before whitewashing compatriot Xia Yuying 5-0 in the semis. That set up a clash with Mink in the final after the 2022 champion beat India's Anupama Ramachandran 4-0 in the quarter-finals and fellow Thai cueist Baipat Siripaporn 5-1 in the semis. The final was a tense affair with plenty of frames ending very closely, including the first of the match which Bai nicked 51-50. More Trending Mink rallied and took the next three and led 4-2 with the only half-century of the contest. That proved to be as good as things got for her, though, with the defending champion winning four on the spin to get her hands on the trophy again. The final frame saw both having a number of chances to win it, with Mink dramatically going in-off on the final pink as it looked like she was forcing a decider. More to follow… MORE: Q School becomes last chance saloon after four survive first event 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
Metro
21-05-2025
- Sport
- Metro
Barry Pinches names career highlight, biggest regret and snooker's crying shame
Barry Pinches turned professional for the first time 36 years ago and he is back at Q School this week looking to do so again just shy of his 55th birthday. The Canary has spent the majority of the last three-and-a-half decades on the pro tour, playing most of the greatest players to ever pick up a cue. Not every player can have a legendary career, but they can have special moments, with Pinches remembering his Players Tour Championship victory in 2010 as his finest. 'I beat Mark Williams and Ronnie O'Sullivan in the same day, that was nice,' Pinches told Metro of his career highlight. 'That was probably the best, winning the PTC, even though there weren't any crowds.' The 2004 World Championship also stands out, battling against iconic names as he beat Jimmy White then lost in a decider to Stephen Hendry, but felt as good as he ever has on the table. 'I actually felt that year I was playing well enough…to win it would have been immensely difficult, but I was playing really well in practise I just wasn't missing.' With well over three decades of experience, Pinches is in as good a position as any to rate the greatest players in history and he plumps for a top three of O'Sullivan, John Higgins and Mark Selby. 'Yeah it's Ronnie,' he said of the sport's GOAT. 'And then probably John Higgins or even Mark Selby.' On Hendry slipping down his list of greats, he said: 'I think with Hendry it's just an era thing. 'Look Hendry's obviously unbelievable, he changed the game he was a scoring machine. But I think if John Higgins or Mark Selby played Hendry at his peak I think they'd just edge him because their safety and their patience could be too much. 'I think Hendry was playing the way he played in his era because he wasn't getting punished enough, there weren't enough players around to punish him, but what a player.' Pinches was winning amateur titles in the very competitive era of the late 80s before turning professional, but he feels talent was getting him through and a lack of mechanical technique held him back over his career. 'I could have done a lot better,' he says of his career so far. 'When I look back, if I could give myself any advice as a 16-year-old, would be to get a coach. I never had a good technique. Even now, my technique's not brilliant. 'I won the English Amateur Championship at 17 and my technique was actually rubbish. 'A lot of players were self-taught back then. For all the natural talent that Ronnie's got, he's always had a pretty good technique even as a young kid. He was brought up around really good players. 'From my perspective, I was just brought up in Norwich. I was the best player in Norwich at 15 years old by quite a distance. I thought, well why do I need a coach? I'm winning everything. 'You won't see anyone playing snooker with a technique that I had when I was 18 years old. It was awful. It was just dreadful. 'When I did eventually see a coach who I was able to spend quite a lot of time with when I was about 27 I started to make a bit of progress and then I nearly broke into the top 16 when I was about 35 years old. 'That's blighted me really if I'm being honest, just messing about and never having a solid technique. I've messed about far too much because I didn't have a good base to start with.' The Canary last fell off the professional tour in 2023 but has remained very competitive on the amateur circuit and is still motivated to play at the highest level while he still feels like he can. 'I'm playing because I still enjoy it,' he said. 'You're a long time retired, aren't you? So when you think you've packed your cue up, that's going to be it. 'I'm still playing to a good level. It's hard to say there's any clear favourites at Q School, but I can still definitely qualify. 'But there's at least 30, 40 players at a minimum who could say that. You take the top 40 players off the Q Tour and you swap them with the bottom 40 pros, the pro tour isn't going to be much different. There's that much strength and depth now.' The standard on the amateur circuit was raised even further over the last year by Zhao Xintong playing on Q Tour, with Pinches' son Luke running into the now world champion twice and unsurprisingly coming up short. 'I said to Luke, he's playing ranking title stuff,' Barry recalls. 'I said it wouldn't surprise me if he goes close to winning the UK Championship. And as it happened, he went and won the Worlds! 'He was playing that bloody well. When you watched him, he was just making centuries every other time. He played the game like he was practising and he just makes it look so easy. 'And there was definitely a fear factor on the Q Tour, you could see it. He had that going for him as well, but he just played great.' Pinches has seen many ups and downs in snooker since he first picked up a cue and feels the sport is in good shape at the minute, but that's not to say that things cannot be improved. One standout area for the 54-year-old is the distribution of prize money, which he feels is far too heavily weighted towards winners and not evenly spread enough across the professional ranks. He feels that this is a big reason for overseas players struggling to make a living out of the game and ultimately giving up on a professional career, despite having the talent to succeed. 'There's been a lot of good players who have packed up playing,' he said. 'The German number one packed up, I believe, Lucas Kleckers. I think that's awful. I just think it's terrible. 'You look at Igor [Figuieredo of Brazil]. It's difficult for him to get on anyway, and there's just not enough money for him to come over. He's like the best player in South America by a country mile. 'I've made my feelings clear to people that are running the game. I think that's a crying shame when that happens, when you get people like that packing up. He probably wouldn't be playing anymore at all if it weren't for the Seniors. 'The game is just too top-heavy. They could stick more down the bottom and encourage these players to make it feasible for them to carry on. I've studied other sports and how they distribute their prize money, and snooker distributes it very top-heavy. 'You've got two good French players at the moment. [Brian] Ochoiski is really good and Nicolas Mortreux. They've both got potential, but I don't see them getting a tour card. Do I see them getting a tour card in the next five years? Do you know what? It's hard to say anyone would be guaranteed to get a tour card in the next five years. 'When I see people packing the game up and they're not only the best player in their country, but the best player in their country ever! You think, oh my God, that's not good.' More Trending It's not doom and gloom from the Canary, who feels there has been a lot of good work in growing the game, but feels more is still to be done. 'I had quite a lot to do with getting Barry Hearn back in,' he said. 'I tried to secure him votes because I thought he'd do really well from the commercial side. The game was on its knees and he's done brilliantly. 'The money's just gone up and up, but I don't think it's being distributed correctly. Prize money distribution is a huge thing. It's massive.' Pinches, who has come through Q School twice before, gets his campaign underway on Thursday against the aforementioned Frenchman Mortreux. 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 MORE: Snooker prospect Ronnie Sullivan doesn't love obvious comparison: 'It does my head in'
