Familiar faces and title winners miss out on professional tour cards amidst Q School carnage

The 2025 World Snooker Championship - won by China’s Zhao Xintong - was the final event of the 2024/25 professional snooker season. Several players who were relegated from the pro ranks during World Championship qualifying in early April attempted to immediately bounce back to the sport’s top tier via Q School.

There were two Q School stagings - one held in Bangkok, Thailand (only open to players from the Asia and Oceania regions) and the other in Leicester, England. Players could only enter one of these locations.

The highest ranked player - in the end of season rankings - who played at Q School but failed to win back a professional tour card was world number 68 Ashley Carty who lost in the last 32 of event one, and the last 16 of event two. In the latter tournament, Carty was defeated by Northern Ireland’s Fergal Quinn who went on to graduate and win promotion for the first time in his career.

The next highest ranked casualty was former top 16 star and German Masters winner Anthony Hamilton, who was trying to preserve the professional player status he had held ever since his debut in 1991.

However, the popular 53-year-old - who has struggled with physical ailments in recent times - was unable to do so, and it now appears that he is planning for a career in coaching.

Several Asian players elected to enter the Asia-Oceania Q School that took place at the Kiatthada Billiards Snooker Club in the Thai capital city.

This included Tian Pengfei, although the 37-year-old - who was a semi-finalist at the Welsh Open just over two years ago - was unable to collect one of the four World Snooker Tour cards on offer there.

Tian won just one match across both events in Thailand, bringing an end to a consecutive stint on the professional circuit that began in 2011.

Young Asian cueists Xing Zihao, Ma Hailong and Manasawin Phetmalaikul were also unable to regain their pro tour stripes in the south-east of the continent; Malaysia’s top player Rory Thor was also unsuccessful in his bid.

Back at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester, three-time Crucible qualifier Stuart Carrington will be on the professional tour sidelines for the first time since 2013 after a last 16 exit in event one, and elimination in the last 32 of event two.

It has been a rollercoaster few weeks for Alfie Burden. After defeat in the World Championship qualifiers at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield and subsequently losing his tour card, Burden managed to win the ‘golden ticket’ event to claim the final spot at the 2025 World Seniors Snooker Championship held at the Crucible Theatre.

At snooker’s hallowed venue, Burden defeated Jimmy White - the player he lost to in the title match there in 2023 - in the opening round en route to again making the final, where he denied former winner Aaron Canavan to win the blue riband event on the World Seniors Snooker Tour for the first time in his career.

Just a few days later, the former world amateur champion was at Q School trying to win back his pro status - something he did two years earlier - but the 48-year-old Londoner was unable to produce another escape act and will now return to amateur player status.

Another familiar name facing that reality is former Welsh Open finalist Andrew Higginson; the 47-year-old could not make it through Q School on this occasion.

Hammad Miah, Dean Young, and Andrew Pagett were the other players who had been relegated just weeks before but couldn’t make it through at the Mattioli, although Young and Pagett came very close as they reached the final round of event two where they were stopped by Quinn and Ian Burns, respectively.

Burns was one of four players who did manage to immediately regain a professional tour card having been relegated just weeks before. Liam Pullen, Alexander Ursenbacher (both from event one) and David Grace (event two) were the other three.

Following a year’s absence from the top flight, UK event one graduate Oliver Brown is back in the big time.

Seven (from 12) of this year’s Q School roll of honour have achieved a dream and will turn professional for the first time. Chatchapong Nasa (Thailand), Liu Wenwei, Xu Yichen, and Zhao Hanyang (all from China) were victorious in Bangkok, while Mateusz Baranowksi (Poland), Fergal Quinn (Northern Ireland), and Connor Benzey (England) emerged triumphant from Leicester.

Several other familiar faces from the professional circuit in years gone by will have to wait at least another season to return to the premier tour, such cueists include Rory McLeod and Barry Pinches. Going further back, Tony Knowles and Dean Reynolds also took part in this year’s Q School.

The new 2025/26 World Snooker Tour professional season is set to get underway in the second half of June with Wuhan Open qualifying and the start of the Championship League (ranking edition).