First Day at School Lacks Quality
Barry Hearn’s new Q School concept broke off at the World Snooker Academy in Sheffield with twelve places on next season’s pro tour and the chance to compete in tournaments like the Betfred.com world championship at stake.
Hearn believes that the three-event series will identify emerging talent.
But on day one, the ‘Q’ certainly didn’t stand for Quality or Quick-Fire in the opening couple of sessions.
Some of the best-of-seven-frame matches lasted well over two hours and not one century break was recorded in 90 frames played on day one.
It is a tougher school on the Pro Tour, and whichever twelve players come through over the next three weeks will certainly need to up their game if they want to make an impression on the likes of John Higgins, Judd Trump and Mark Williams.
Former ranking title winner, David Gray made a winning start in his bid to regain a place ‘on tour’. The Londoner took two-and-a-half hours to see off the challenge of Nottingham’s David Singh by four-frames-to-two, with a highest break of 39.
Former world championship quarter-finalist, Lee Walker made heavy weather against Stephen Ormerod but remained on course winning a seventh frame decider.
Stuart Carrington was easily the most impressive player on display making breaks of 92 and 61 in his 4-2 win over James Silverwood.
Youngsters Jamie Clarke and Oliver Brown will be back to fight another day in Event Two, as will the highly rated Ben Harrison who despite making the day’s highest break 98 break in the late session, lost 4-1 to Chen Zhe.
There are first day nerves at any school, which might explain the less than impressive start, but if you go by the theory that a win is a win, a valuable lesson may have been learned.
Watch this space!
