Hammad Miah, Sam Baird, Sam Craigie and Jak Jones are all back on the professional snooker tour after coming through the first event of Q School.
The quartet all dropped off of the circuit at the end of last season and were simply too good over the first six days in Burton-upon-Trent as they secured an immediate return to the circuit, and guaranteed their playing rights for the next two seasons.
Hammad Miah only dropped six frames in the six wins he required to earn his tour card. Former Women's World Champion Reanne Evans was among the players that Miah overcame to clinch his place in the draw for the final day, where the players faced two matches to secure their card.
Miah's first match saw him take on Ben Hancorn, who had already beaten Jackson Page and Joel Walker. Breaks of 101 and a closing 74 helped Miah to a 4-2 victory and a place in the final round. There he met Luke Simmonds who he defeated in absolutely no time at all, winning 4-0 and clinching his tour card with the minimum of stress. Miah was the most convincing of the four tour card winners, and the only one that did not have to come through a deciding frame during the event.
Next up was Sam Baird who found himself in Q School after a dramatic drop down the rankings over the last year. Things started off difficultly for Baird in the opening round when he took on James Silverwood. Both players had century breaks, with Silverwood also contributing with runs of 97 and 71 on the way to a 3-2 lead before Baird came through 4-3. Two whitewashes followed, before a comfortable 4-1 win against Barry Pinches saw the Devon potter into the final day.
His first victory of the day came against another recently dropped off pro Adam Duffy, in which Baird finished with the highest break of the event, as a 133 secured a 4-2 victory that put him into the final round. In this tie, Baird faced China's Hu Hao who had also lost in the final round for his tour card in Q School a year ago, and this time he would suffer the same fate. Baird opened up a 2-0 lead before Hu came back with an 89 in the third, before missing the chance to level 2-2, with Baird going 3-1 up before ultimately securing another 4-2 win.
Sam Craigie showed his class on the final day to secure his immediate return to the circuit, overcoming two ex-professionals in his five matches won in the event. The first of those was a tough tie with Andy Hicks, where Hicks did lead 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2, but breaks of 93, 52 and 71 helped Craigie to ensure he was never more than a frame adrift, before a break of 63 in the decider saw him home. Rounds three and four were comfortable enough for the 24-year-old to book his place in the final day, as he met David Lilley in the penultimate round.
Runs of 56, 63 and 100 helped Craigie come through a tough tie 4-2, setting up a final round cracker with Thai ex-pro Dechawat Poomjaeng. Craigie though dominated the tie, showing his class when it truly mattered and demonstrating that he is far too good to have to come through Q School. He started the match with breaks of 78, 77 and 119 to take full command before the door was slammed shut on Poomjaeng with a 4-0 whitewash victory.
Jak Jones completed the first event, earning the final tour card after some tough battles of the course of the six matches required to regain his professional status. Right from the very first round Jones had a tough draw, taking on another player who had recently been axed at the end of the season in Alex Borg. The Maltese player took a 2-0 lead before Jones fought back, ultimately winning 4-3. Two whitewashes followed to put him into round four where he faced another tough clash with young Shane Castle. On this occasion, Jones took a 2-0 lead before Castle battled back to 2-2. In the end the Welshman was just too strong, conquering Castle 4-2 to make it through to the final day.
Round five served up a match with yet another recently dropped off pro in Thor Chuan Leong. After losing the opener, Jones stormed into a 3-1 lead, only to see Thor battle back to force a deciding frame. When Jones saw his opportunity to clinch the match though he grabbed it with both hands, compiling a break of 86 to get through to the final round. Once more he had a difficult final round match against Jordan Brown, who had already fallen short of getting on tour this year losing the European Amateur Championship final to Harvery Chandler. Brown had beaten ex-pro James Cahill to make it to the final round and took an early 2-0 lead on Jones before the Welshman clawed his way back. Runs of 50 and 58 helped the 24-year-old to fight back and go on to run out a 4-2 victor.
Congratulations to Jones, Craigie, Baird and Miah, but for the remaining hopefuls there are still two events to go and eight tour cards still up for grabs over the next couple of weeks.
Jordan Brown is among those that are straight back in action on Sunday morning, and I have picked out some of the players to watch after keeping an a close eye on events over the first six days.
After a quick look at the draw for event two my selection in the top section is James Cahill. The young man has started brightly in Burton making it through to the penultimate round before losing out to Brown in a match that could have gone either way. There is still a feeling in my mind that Cahill is too good not to be on the tour, and he is certainly knocking on the door, having also made the final round of event two a year ago before just failing to regain his tour place. If he can get off to a good start in this second event then there is no reason why he cannot build his confidence and knock the door down to get back on the tour.
In section two I have bookmarked Kishan Hirani as a possible one to watch. Hirani made it to round four in event one and his victory over former pro Zak Surety in round three there is the one that caught my eye and influenced my selection. He simply steamrolled Surety conceding just 37 points over the four frames to secure a 4-0 victory. Hirani also took out Michael Judge in the second round after Judge had beaten Mitchell Mann a round previously, and if he can pull similarly impressive results out of the bag in this second event then he is certainly a tour card contender.
Section three was a very tough one to select from, but I have eventually picked out Chinese 18-year-old Geng Mingqi. Geng made it to the penultimate round in event one, where he took a 2-0 lead on Dechawat Poomjaeng before the Thai made 50+ contributions in each of the final three frames to turn the match around and come through. He showed a lot of bottle earlier in the event to come back from 3-1 down to overcome Mateusz Baranowski 4-3. Given the talent that China is producing it would not be a surprise at all to see another young prospect earn a place on the tour.
Finally, in section four I'm going for Hu Hao as he looks to make it third time lucky and earn his tour ticket. Hu missed out in the final round of event one against Baird, after beating former pro Lu Ning in the penultimate round. Hu looked like an impressive player when I saw him fall short last year in event two of Q School and if he keeps knocking on the door it will eventually open up for him, because he certainly looks good enough to force through. Given the fact that he came through some tight tussles in the earlier rounds of the first event this week, I am not sure his bottle can be questioned, especially when you see how he finished his match with Lu Ning. Keep an eye on Hu in event two.
Another player who I believe is worth a notable mention is 21-year-old Haydon Pinhey. Pinhey made it into the penultimate round of the first event, beating Kuldesh Johal in round two before coming through a high quality fourth round match with Phil O'Kane. On that occasion Pinhey made a break of 114 early in the match before an 86 clearance in the decider put him into the final day. Round five saw him come up just short losing 4-2 to Luke Simmonds, despite him making the only two 50+ contributions in the match with runs of 67 and 70, with Simmonds winning the closer frames on the day.
Also worth keeping an eye on is India's Laxman Rawat who defeated Chen Zhe and Andrew Pagett in event one before losing to Lu Ning in round four. The four frames Laxman produced from 2-0 down against Pagett saw some sensational scoring that proved too hot to handle. Meanwhile, there are still plenty of pro's that have just dropped off tour who may pounce at the second time of asking, including Zhao Xintong.
Whatever happens six more pressure filled days are surely in store for the players, which should also produce some exciting matches to follow, especially when the actions heats up during the final three rounds.
No comments:
Post a Comment