Brandon Sargeant leads the way after Challenge Tour event 1

Brandon Sargeant has taken a big step towards the professional tour after winning the first event in the new Challenge Tour.

After the last of ten events on this amateur tour this season, the top two players on the Order of Merit will receive two year tour cards and move up to the professional tour, so victory for Sargeant in the final against Luke Simmonds has seen the pair hit the front in the standings.

Despite the top 64 on the Q School Order of Merit earning the right to play on the tour, as well as further invitations being handed out, World Snooker had to go much further down the list in order to secure the 59 man field that would eventually compete last weekend in Burton.

However, a quality group of players remained at the latter stages of Sunday's play with recently dropped relegated pro's David Grace and Mitchell Mann making the semi-finals and signalling their intentions.

Grace was one of six players that would eventually receive a walkover into the last 32, before 3-1 victories against Adam Edge and Kuldesh Johal put him into the quarter-finals. Another 3-1 victory followed against Kevin Van Hove who has been invited on to the tour as the Belgian national champion. Van Hove took £500 back to Belgium for his efforts, while Grace would leave Burton with £700 after his 3-2 semi-final loss to Simmonds.

As for Mann, he came from behind to beat Joshua Thomond 3-1 in the opening round before whitewashing Jamie Trump in the last 32. Trump received a first round walkover and was invited to play in Burton despite a very low finish on the Q School OoM.

That put Mann through to the final day where he would overcome Women's tour legend Reanne Evans 3-1 in the last 16, prior to a 3-2 defeat off fellow ex-professional Joel Walker put him into the last four. Like Grace though, Mann would eventually fall in a deciding frame to Sargeant.

38-year-old Simmonds made it to the final round in the first event of Q School this year, falling short against Hammad Miah in the match that would have earned him a tour card. In the opening round of Challenge Tour event one he faced a decider against Himanshu Jain, who reached the final round of the recently completed third event of Q School before falling to Ashley Carty. 12-year-old Iulian Boiko of Ukraine was Simmond's last 32 victim, before he made it back-to-back whitewashes on Sunday morning with a 3-0 win over Oliver Brown.

Next up for Simmonds was a tie with ex-pro James Cahill who repeatedly came close in Q School this year, but experience told here with Simmonds winning 3-1, and then the deciding frame win over David Grace put him into the final. His eventual runners-up finish would earn Simmonds £1000 for the two days of work.


Brandon Sargeant had things tough right from the opening round when he had to come through in a decider against Phil O'Kane to move into the last 32. Another decider was needed in round two as he eventually took down Anthony Jeffers to advance to the final day.

His only whitewash of the weekend came in the last 16 on Sunday morning when he thrashed India's Lucky Vatnani to set up a mouth watering quarter-final with young Welshman Jackson Page. Once more, Sargeant would have to hold his nerve in a final frame decider to come through that one, while a solid start for Page would see him take home £500. A fourth decider of the weekend would follow and his luck showed no signs of running out as he took out Mann and reached the final.

Breaks of 64 and 56 in the final put the 20-year-old into a 2-1 lead on Simmonds, before closing out the match like a true champion with a total clearance of 139. What it means is that Sargeant has taken home the first trophy of the 2018/2019 season and a nice prize of £2,000, a healthy reward for six victories over two days of play.


The full list of results from event one are as follows:

Round 1: 

Kevin Van Hove 3-2 Peter Devlin
Felix Frede 3-2 John Foster
Lee Shanker 3-0 Andrew Milliard
Charlie Walters 3-0 Leo Fernandez
David Grace W/O
Adam Edge 3-0 Peter Delaney
Kuldesh Johal 3-2 Heikki Niva
Patrick Whelan 3-0 Andrew Smith
Adam Duffy 3-2 Michael Collumb
David Lilley 3-2 Jeff Cundy
James Cahill 3-0 Barry Pinches
Jack Bradford W/O
Luke Simmonds 3-2 Himanshu Jain
Iulian Boiko W/O
Oliver Brown 3-2 Rodion Judin
Andreas Ploner 3-1 Joshua Cooper
William Lemons 3-1 Jake Nicholson
Sydney Wilson 3-1 Bash Maqsood
Ben Hancorn 3-0 Lee Daegyu
Joel Walker 3-0 Dylan Emery
Mitchell Mann 3-1 Joshua Thomond
Jamie Trump W/O Sergey Isaenko
Reanne Evans 3-0 Heather Clare
Chae Ross W/O
Brandon Sargeant 3-2 Phil O'Kane
Anthony Jeffers 3-1 Brandon Hall
Matthew Day 3-1 Lee Gorton
Lucky Vatnani 3-2 Callum Lloyd
Farakh Ajaib 3-1 Daniel Womersley
Sean Maddocks W/O
Jackson Page 3-2 Steven Hallworth
Jamie O'Neill 3-0 Andy Marriot

Round 2:

Kevin Van Hove 3-2 Felix Frede
Charlie Walters 3-1 Lee Shanker
David Grace 3-1 Adam Edge
Kuldesh Johal 3-0 Patrick Whelan
David Lilley 3-1 Adam Duffy
James Cahill 3-0 Jack Bradford
Luke Simmonds 3-0 Iulian Boiko
Oliver Brown 3-2 Andreas Ploner
William Lemons 3-2 Sydney Wilson
Joel Walker 3-2 Ben Hancorn
Mitchell Mann 3-0 Jamie Trump
Reanne Evans 3-2 Chae Ross
Brandon Sargeant 3-2 Anthony Jeffers
Lucky Vatnani 3-2 Matthew Day
Farakh Ajaib 3-0 Sean Maddocks
Jackson Page 3-1 Jamie O'Neill

Last 16:

Kevin Van Hove 3-1 Charlie Walters
David Grace 3-1 Kuldesh Johal
James Cahill 3-1 David Lilley
Luke Simmonds 3-0 Oliver Brown
Joel Walker 3-0 William Lemons
Mitchell Mann 3-1 Reanne Evans
Brandon Sargeant 3-0 Lucky Vatnani
Jackson Page 3-1 Farakh Ajaib

Quarter-Finals: 

David Grace 3-1 Kevin Van Hove
Luke Simmonds 3-1 James Cahill
Mitchell Mann 3-2 Joel Walker
Brandon Sargeant 3-2 Jackson Page

Semi-Finals: 

Luke Simmonds 3-2 David Grace
Brandon Sargeant 3-2 Mitchell Mann

Final: 

Brandon Sargeant 3-1 Luke Simmonds


After going deep into the Q School list it is worth mentioning that William Lemons (78) and Oliver Brown (104) performed the best out of the players who were invited to play as top-ups from outside of the top 64 on the order of merit, with both making the last 16 on Sunday. Meanwhile, Kevin Van Hove showed that he was worthy of his invite by making the quarter-finals.

Brandon Sargeant meanwhile came from 54 on the order of merit to beat 5th placed Luke Simmonds in the final, and Sargeant only made it into the top 64 on the order of merit after turning around a 3-0 deficit to beat Jamie O'Neill in the final Q School event.


The second event on the Challenge Tour is just over a month away, taking place from July 10-11 at the Preston Guildhall, following the completion of the qualifiers for the Riga Masters (July 2-4) and the World Open (July 5-9), when the professional tour's 2018/2019 season commences.

Until then, there will be very little to report from the snooker world and the next pieces to come from the blog will be a preview of the first set of qualifiers and a full 2018/2019 season preview, with a round-up of all the players that will feature on the pro circuit during the campaign, as well as my selected 'Players to Watch'.