The 2020 Q School was a series of three snooker tournaments held at the start of the 2020–21 snooker season. An event for amateur players, it served as a qualification event for a place on the professional World Snooker Tour for the following two seasons. The events took place in August 2020 at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield, England with a total 12 players qualifying via the three tournaments.
Format Originally planned for June 2020, the series was delayed until August because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 Q School still consisted of three events but, rather than taking place one after the other, they were all played in a week. All first and second matches for all three events were played on the opening four days, and then the final stages were played on the next three days. The three events had 172 entries competing for 12 places on the main tour. Four players qualified from each of the three events. Rounds 1 and 2 were contested over 5 frames, with later rounds being played over seven frames.
Event 1 The first 2020 Q School event was held from 3 to 7 August 2020. Lee Walker, Peter Devlin, Simon Lichtenberg and Fan Zhengyi qualified. The results of the four final matches are given below.
4–1 4–2 4–1 4–2
Event 2 The second 2020 Q School event was held from 4 to 8 August 2020. Jamie Jones, Zak Surety, Oliver Lines and Ben Hancorn qualified. The results of the four final matches are given below.
4–0 4–1 4–2 4–0
Event 3 The third 2020 Q School event was held from 5 to 9 August 2020. Rory McLeod, Jamie Wilson, Farakh Ajaib and Steven Hallworth qualified. The results of the four final matches are given below.
4–2 4–3 4–2 4–2
Q School Order of Merit A Q School Order of Merit was produced for players who failed to gain a place on the main tour. The Order of Merit was used to top up fields for the 2020–21 snooker season where an event failed to attract the required number of entries. The rankings in the Order of Merit were based on the number of frames won in the three Q School events. Players who received a bye into the second round were awarded three points for round one. Where players were equal, those who won the most frames in the first event were ranked higher and, if still equal, the player with most frames in event two.
The Order of Merit was intended to be used to give priority places for the new Q Tour which was announced in July 2020. However the tour was delayed by a year and only started in 2021–22.
The leading players in the Q School Order of Merit are given below. Rank Player Event 1 Event 2 Event 3 Total1 Michael White 20 12 15 472 Brian Ochoiski 10 17 20 473 Paul Davison 7 20 20 474 Leo Fernandez 19 19 5 435 Jamie Curtis-Barrett 13 17 12 426 Kuldesh Johal 8 18 13 397 Oliver Brown 13 8 17 388 Daniel Womersley 9 12 16 379 Haydon Pinhey 1 15 21 3710 John Astley 20 4 11 35
Two-season performance of qualifiers The following table shows the rankings of the 12 qualifiers from the 2020 Q School, at the end of the 2021–22 snooker season, the end of their two guaranteed seasons on the tour, together with their tour status for the 2022–23 snooker season. Players in the top-64 of the rankings retained their place on the tour while those outside the top-64 lost their place unless they qualified under a different category. Player End of 2021–22 season Status for 2022–23 season Money Ranking 26,500 91 Amateur 26,500 92 Amateur 48,500 75 Amateur 113,000 36 Retained place on tour 129,500 31 Retained place on tour 20,500 101 Qualified through the 2022 Q School 73,000 57 Retained place on tour 30,000 88 Amateur 42,500 78 Amateur 22,000 100 Amateur 22,500 99 Amateur 40,500 81 Amateur
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