Quartet of cueists navigate opening Q School chaos to win coveted professional snooker tour cards

Ka Wai Cheung, Phil O'Kane, Sean O'Sullivan and Liam Davies were the quartet of cueists to emerge from the opening Q School gauntlet on Monday at the Mattioli Arena.

While Cheung, O'Sullivan and Davies all return to snooker's top-flight, England's O'Kane gains his professional stripes for the first time.

The 33-year-old has appeared at all but two editions of Q School since the concept was introduced to the green baize calendar in 2011, and now O'Kane can say he found the formula.

O'Kane won back-to-back deciding frame matches in the last 32 and 16 against Zack Richardson and Daniel Womersley, respectively, before seeing off former pro Jeff Cundy 4-2 in the penultimate round with the aid of a 132.

At the final hurdle, O'Kane made breaks of 63 and 55 in a 4-1 qualification success over another ex-pro in Jamie O'Neill.

Having been relegated from the World Snooker Tour only last month, Davies and Cheung both immediately bounced back at the first time of asking.

Welsh teenager Davies - a former European under-18 and under-21 champion - survived deciding frame outcomes in his opening three matches in Leicester before whitewashing Patrick Whelan, 4-0, in the last 16.

In the final round, the youngster registered runs of 65, 134 and 56 in a 4-2 win over Dean Young - another player who was aiming to reclaim a tour card.

Davies is one of the UK's brightest young snooker talents. Last month at the 2026 World Snooker Championship qualifiers, he experienced heartbreak when he lost 10-9 to Marco Fu in the second round having battled back from 9-5 down - a result that confirmed his demotion - but now he can look forward to at least two more years of the Tour.

Hong Kong ace Cheung will join the expanding band of cueists on snooker's top tier from the Far East as he dropped only five frames from five matches at the Mattioli to get back into the big time.

Following whitewash wins from his opening two matches, Cheung - who qualified for the pro tour for the first time in 2024 after winning the World Snooker Federation Championship - then secured a brace of 4-2 victories before a 4-1 triumph over Jack Bradford in the final round along with efforts of 78, 57 and 54.

Londoner O'Sullivan is set to return to the professional circuit after a two-year absence.

The 32-year-old Englishman - who practices with O'Kane - defeated former world number two Tony Knowles, 4-0, in the opening round before 4-3 wins over Rodion Judin and Ryan Davies.

After seeing off Nathan Jones, 4-2, at the second-to-last hurdle with a pair of century breaks, O'Sullivan denied Joshua Thomond a maiden tour card with a 4-2 success.

It is the third time in O'Sullivan's career that he has navigated the Q School chaos.

The second and final UK Q School event begins on Tuesday, with four more professional tour cards to be dished out on Sunday.

It is the last chance saloon for several very familiar names to snooker fans, including former top 16 stars Robert Milkins and Mark Davis.

Former World 6-Reds Snooker Champion Davis lost his first match in event one to Welsh youngster Oliver Briffett-Payne, while two-time ranking event winner Milkins was eliminated 4-3 by Duane Jones in the last 64.