By Elliott West
Introduction
It’s that time of the year again and prior to the start of the World Championship with the majority of the 128 players having to endure the intense situation that is the World Championship qualifiers. With just the top 16 guaranteed a place on the Crucible stage, the rest will vie for one of the 16 coveted positions in Sheffield.
The Format
Like in the 2020 format, there will be four rounds in the preliminaries with players ranked 81 or below in the official world rankings battling it out at the first hurdle alongside 16 invited international amateurs.
The 32 winners enter the second round and face the players from 49 to 80, before those in the 17 to 48 bracket enter in round three.
The final 32 contenders will finally go head-to-head on what is dubbed Judgment Day in the World Championship qualifying draw.
The action will be played over the best of 11 frames until the final round, which will be contested across two sessions and the usual best of 19 frames.
The Wielding Axe
Several players have already fallen off the tour as a result of the qualifiers. With only two days played, Soheil Vahedi and Jimmy White have fallen foul of the process. It is likely that some more familiar faces will join them but White could be saved yet again via Barry Hearn offering another two year wild card for his outstanding contribution to snooker. An emotional Jimmy opened up to Rob Walker in his post-match interview, clearly distraught by his 6-3 loss to Stephen Hendry, describing himself as “being gutted” and will have to try and evaluate how badly he played.
Meanwhile Soheil Vahedi squandered his chances of a victory, being 5-2 up in the match at one point but his fired up opponent, Julien Leclercq battled and pulled back the deficit with Belgian winning the match 6-5. A great win, tinged with the loss of a very talented Iranian player from the main tour.
Better news came from two players on the exit precipice, both Rod Lawler and Si Jiahui with victories over Alex Borg 6-1 and Harim Hussain by the same score line respectively. Lee Walker also came through a marathon match with Ken Doherty to win 6-4 and face his next opponent Nigel Bond. A match that had temporarily been suspended earlier to allow the afternoon’s session to start. Walker has overcome severe back problems to compete.
“I was in absolute agony…I had started thinking it might be the end.”
Lee Walker
Rebecca Kenna also narrowly missed out on a place in the second round after a valiant fight against Brandon Sargeant. Kenna who led the match at one stage 2-1, produced some fine potting but couldn’t quite get over the line and Brandon managed to resist the pressure heaped on him to win the match 6-4.
The World Championship qualifiers like the Q School is a gruelling process for any player and one where someone can fall ant the first or even the last hurdle. Neither of course compare to the Norbreck Castle Hotel of years gone by. A place where few liked travelling to. A Blackpool destination that definitely wasn’t holiday oriented and survival rested on withstanding the oppressive qualifying cubicles.
