New Tour Players Confirmed

Qualifying School for the new tour professionals has come to a close today and we now have the 12 players that have come through.

Christopher Keogan and Chinese players Chen Zhe, Fang Xiongman and Cao Yupeng who fell off of the tour at the end of the 2015/2016 were able to earn two year tour cards from event one.

As for event two this saw another four players come through in the shape of Michael Georgiou, John Astley, David John and Alex Borg.

On top of that four players earned tour cards by a Q School order of merit which combined both event one and event two in terms of frames won. Jamie Barrett, Ian Preece and Adam Duffy earned theirs by getting to the penultimate round of both events before losing out. The final player to come through was Craig Steadman after he lost in the final round of event two to Michael Georgiou.

Some of these players that have come through have been on tour before while others have competed in professional competition before as a top-up or a wildcard, so here are a few thoughts and facts on each.

Chen Zhe - Zhe was on the tour in the 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 seasons after coming through Q School in 2012. His most notable result was making the semi-finals of the first Asian Tour event of his first season in June 2012 beating Tom Ford and Ben Woollaston along the way. He ended that first season ranked 78 but his second season did not live up to the same standards and he finished well outside of the top 64. Since then he has been unlucky, losing in the final round of Q School in 2015.

Cao Yupeng - Cao Yupeng was a regular on the tour and only dropped off at the end of the season so it is pleasing to see him come back on at the first attempt. It was only one poor season last season that saw him fall just outside of the top 64, having two seasons earlier made the Wuxi Classic quarter-finals as well as a quarter-final on the Asian Tour. It is always worth remembering that Yupeng has also competed at the Crucible where he beat Mark Allen in 2012 to make the Last 16.

Fang Xiongman - The final Chinese player to come through in Fang Xiongman is a 23 year old who is on the tour for the first time. Xiongman has had some victories against professionals previously, beating Jamie Jones as a wildcard in the 2015 Shanghai Masters. Other than that he has mostly completed on the Asian Tour with the odd victory against Chinese professionals like Zhang Anda and Tian Pengfei.

Christopher Keogan - Christopher Keogan has made it on to the tour for the first time having regularly competed in professional events over the last couple of seasons. Impressively he beat recently relegated pro's Joel Walker and Lu Chenwei on the way to earning his tour card in Q School event one. He has competed on TV before playing Shaun Murphy in one of the European Tour events at the back end of 2015, where he lost 4-1. In 2014 World Championship qualifying he beat professional of the time Michael Leslie 10-6 which is one of his rare victories in against a tour player in pro competition.

Adam Duffy - Adam Duffy is one of the more impressive players to have qualified. He has put behind him the disappointment of losing a final frame decider in the final round of the EBSA play-offs in April which saw Sam Craigie earn a tour card. Duffy earned a spot on the professional tour in 2011 and after a good season, was able to climb into the top 64 and stay on for the following season. Despite a poorer season in 2012/2013 he made it up to 60 in the world but dropped off of the tour after another poor year in 2014. He was impressive in the 2014/2015 season playing as an amateur where he reached the final round of World Championship qualifying before losing out 10-8 to Jamie Jones. Then having another go at Q School in 2015 he lost out in a final round decider to Eden Sharav.

Jamie Barrett - Barrett has competed a number of times in Q School and in European Tour events but easily the most impressive thing about his achievement in getting on the tour this year so soon after the death of his wife, which shows a great amount of mental strength and perseverance. Here's hoping that as a tour rookie he does everyone proud.

Ian Preece - Ian lost out in the penultimate round of both Q School events to former tour players in Chen Zhe and John Astley that went on to earn their tour cards back also. He has had stints on tour quite a while ago and is the IBSF Amateur Champion from 1999. His best result in his time on tour came in the 2009 Welsh Open where he qualified for the Last 32.

Craig Steadman - Craig Steadman fell off of the tour at the end of 2015/2016 by a small margin which will have disappointed him after he qualified for the World Championships at the Crucible in 2015. Making the penultimate round of event one and the final round of event two was enough for Steadman to get a place back on tour at the first attempt via the Q School order of merit. A good season in 2014/2015 also saw him make it into the quarter-finals of the Lisbon Open.

John Astley - John Astley made it back on to the tour after beating Peter Lines and Lu Chenwei amongst others in event two, both of whom had only just dropped off of the tour. Astley chose to take some time off after dropping off of the tour at the end of the 2014/2015 season. He even appeared in Comedy Drama 'The Nap' which was staged at the Crucible showing he had more than one string to his bow. Other than the odd good result Astley has not really reached the heights that he would hope to on tour and that could soon change over the next couple of years.

Michael Georgiou - Georgiou is back on the tour at the first attempt after dropping off at the end of last season. He will have been disappointed to fall off as results were very few and fair between after he won three qualifying rounds to make the Last 32 of the Australian Open at the start of the 2015/2016 season. He also made the Last 16 of the Welsh Open in 2015 and on both of these occasions he lost out to eventual champion John Higgins.

David John - On the way to victory in event two, John overcame two players in Tony Drago and Zak Surety who had just dropped off of the tour. The Welshman also had a go at Q School last season and off of the back of that entered Australian Open qualifying as a top-up player and got a 5-1 win against Alfie Burden.

Alex Borg - Malta's Alex Borg is back on tour having most recently fallen away at the end of the 2014/2015 season. He was very over the course of those last couple of seasons he had on tour and he did not come particularly close to staying on after his two years. He will certainly be hoping for a lot more in the next couple of years.


Those are the twelve from Q School then but there are plenty of other new and returning players to the tour who have come from all sorts of avenues and I will mention some of these in a piece I am hoping to do in the coming week previewing the new season, looking at some more of these newbies, players to watch, the new events on the calendar and who will need good runs in tournaments through the seasons to save their tour places.