Chinese Rule At Q2
Tian Pengfei and Li Yan took two of the four places on next season’s World Snooker Pro Tour by winning five matches at the second event of Q School in Sheffield.
Pengfei who has previously competed ‘on tour’ will be joined by Ireland’s David Morris and England’s Simon Bedford, who both regain their places after being relegated following this year’s Betfred.com world championship.
Yan beat former Scottish Open champion, David Gray by four-frames-to-one after the Londoner had taken the opening frame with a break of 63.
The Chinese player responded with breaks of 79, 54, 47 and 49 to claim a comfortable win in just 83 minutes.
Pengfei was the second player through ten minutes later beating David Gilbert by four-frames-two.
Gilbert, who undoubtedly has the ability to compete at the highest level lost in the final qualifying round for the second successive time, must now head back to the start and do it all over again.
The man from Tamworth took the opening frame with a run of 59 before Pegfei levelled with a break of 72.
Frames three and four proved decisive as both players had chances before the Chinese player took them both and opened up a two-frame advantage.
Gilbert made an impressive 82 in the next to close to within one but less than 15-minutes later, it was all over as Pengfei closed the match with a 66.
Bedford and Morris both came through final frame deciders against Wales’ Lee Walker and England’s Michael Wild respectively.
Bedford and Walker took over three hours, making just one fifty-plus break each in an understandably tense affair.
The final round at Q School is all or nothing. The winner gets a golden ticket to the next level and the loser heads back to square-one.
Yorkshireman, Bedford made the better start taking the opening two frame thanks mainly to breaks of 43 and 53, before the Welshman settled, taking the next two to level with the highest break of match, a 61 in frame three.
Walker looked to be heading in front for the first time in frame five but broke down on 47. Bedford clawed his way back in and eventually took the last few colours to go one up with tow to play.
Frame six was littered with chances but Walker held on to win it and force the decider.
The first scoring chance fell to Walker, but he could only take a 12-point lead. Deciders tend to be drawn-out battles and as the frame clock eadged past half-an-hour, the outcome was still not settled.
Bedford finally sealed a satisfying win with a break of 27, obviously delighted to be having another crack on the sport’s biggest stage next season.
Wild led Morris by three-frames-to-one helped by breaks of 56 and 51.
The Irishman, who was once tipped as a potential world champion fought his way back to 3-3 making a break of 60 in frame five.
Morris got in first in the final frame, making a break of 49, but when he missed, Wild made his third fifty-plus break of the match.
The Manchester player broke down on 51 with just the pink and black remaining, and let his opponent back in to take the pink he needed to send him through.
Morris, Bedford, Pengfei and Yan will join David Grace, Robin Hull, Andrew Norman and Adam Wicheard who all made it through in the first event.
For the rest, it is last chance saloon as the final Q School event gets underway this week with the final four places up for grabs.
