Familiar faces return to professional snooker tour following Q School success

Stuart Carrington, Mitchell Mann, Andrew Higginson, and Gong Chenzhi were the four cueists to emerge from the last chance saloon on Sunday at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester, each earning two-year tour cards for snooker's top-flight, with the new 2026/27 season to begin in less than a fortnight's time.

English duo Carrington and Higginson both return to the big time after a year away from it.

Back in March, two-time ranking event semi-finalist Carrington narrowly missed out on a tour card after losing in the final round of this season's Global Q Tour Playoffs in Spain.

There were serious doubts over whether the 35-year-old would even take part at this year's Q School, as he withdrew from event one due to a neck injury. But the decision to rest ahead of event two paid dividends as he navigated the Q School gauntlet for the second time in his career - 15 years on from success at the inaugural staging.

Former world number 38 Carrington defeated Harvey Chandler, Kreishh Gurbaxani, Alex Millington, and Sebastian Milewski to reach the final hurdle in Leicester where he denied Israel's Yaron Bodor, 4-1, to qualify.

After victories over Labeeb Ahmed and Marc Shaw, Higginson defeated exciting 15-year-old talent Shaun Liu, 4-2, before whitewashing Mark Davis, 4-0 in the penultimate round.

In the final round, Higginson faced another former ranking event finalist in Mark Joyce, and breaks of 61 and 89 helped him to a 4-1 win.

Now 48-years-old, Higginson first turned professional in 1996 and has twice reached a career-high world ranking of 18th.

The Widnes cueman is best remembered for a brilliant run to the final of the 2007 Welsh Open during which he made a maximum 147 break in the quarter-finals.

Mann and Gong immediately bounce back to the professional circuit at the first time of asking following relegation at last month's 2026 World Snooker Championship qualifiers.

A quarter-finalist at the British Open last September, 34-year-old Englishman Mann got over the disappointment of losing his opening match in event one.

Wins over Ryan Thomerson, Mark Bell, and Simon Blackwell got him to the last 16 where he ousted George Pragnell, 4-3.

For his final assignment, Mann faced a stern test against Allan Taylor - who like him had recently been relegated - but a brace of half-centuries aided him to a 4-2 verdict.

It's the third time that Mann has graduated from Q School after qualifications in 2021 and 2024.

Chinese teenager Gong impressed in his rookie professional season with a series of solid results, but struggled during his second campaign, during which he collected less than half the prize money he did the term before.

But the 19-year-old can now reset and try to emulate the breakthroughs that his fellow countrymen have made in recent times.

Gong defeated Richard Binns and Callum Beresford early on in event two before victories over Bulcsu Revesz (4-1) and Robert Milkins (4-3) put him on the brink of a tour return.

In his all-or-nothing match against Frenchman Brian Ochoiski, Gong broke free taking the final two frames for a 4-2 triumph and further swell the number of Chinese participants on next season's World Snooker Tour.

The full professional player roster for the 2026/27 term is now nearly complete; Cheung Ka Wai, Phil O'Kane, Sean O'Sullivan, and Liam Davies were the graduates from event one, meanwhile on the other side of the world in Bangkok, Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon, Deng Haohui, Huang Jiahao, and Liu Yang were the graduates from this year's Asia-Oceania Q School.