The 2014 Q School was a series of two snooker tournaments held at the start of the 2014–15 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 May 2014 at the Capital Venue in Gloucester, England with a total eight players qualifying via the two tournaments.
Format The 2014 Q School consisted of two events with eight qualification places available. Previously there had been three events with a total of 12 places available. The entry fee was reduced from £1,000 to £600. The two events had 145 entries competing for the eight places on the main tour, four players qualifying from each of the two events. All matches were the best of seven frames.
Event 1 The first 2014 Q School event was held from 10 to 15 May 2014. Craig Steadman, Chris Melling, Zhang Anda and Tian Pengfei qualified. The results of the four final matches are given below.
4–0 4–3 4–3 4–0
Event 2 The second 2014 Q School event was held from 16 to 21 May 2014. Liam Highfield, Michael Georgiou, Lee Walker and Michael Leslie qualified. Wells had previously held a tour card. The results of the four final matches are given below.
4–2 4–2 4–1 4–3
Q School Order of Merit A Q School Order of Merit was produced for players who didn't qualify from the two events. The Order of Merit was used to top up fields for the 2014–15 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 two Q School events. Players who received a bye into the second round were awarded four points for round one. Where players were equal, those who won the most frames in the first event were ranked higher.
The leading players in the Q School Order of Merit are given below. Rank Player Event 1 Event 2 Total1 Eden Sharav 20 23 43T2 Ashley Carty 18 22 40T2 Alex Pagulayan 18 22 404 Jamie Clarke23 15 385 Daniel Wells 15 19 346 John Sutton 20 12 327 Chen Zhe 17 15 328 Oliver Brown 14 18 329 Joe O'Connor 9 21 3010 Duane Jones 23 6 29
Two-season performance of qualifiers The following table shows the rankings of the 8 qualifiers from the 2014 Q School, at the end of the 2015–16 snooker season, the end of their two guaranteed seasons on the tour, together with their tour status for the 2016–17 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 2015–16 season Status for 2016–17 season Money Ranking 42,999 68 Qualified through the 2016 Q School 12,757 91 Amateur 45,816 65 Qualified through the Asian Tour Order of Merit 74,616 48 Retained place on tour 44,716 67 Qualified through the European Tour Order of Merit 28,591 76 Qualified through the 2016 Q School 32,833 74 Qualified through the European Tour Order of Merit 11,422 93 Amateur
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