The 2016 Q School was a series of two snooker tournaments held at the start of the 2016–17 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 2016 at the Meadowside Centre in Burton-upon-Trent, England with a total 12 players qualifying via the two tournaments and the Order of Merit.
Format The 2016 Q School consisted of two events. The two events had 182 entries competing for 12 places on the main tour, four players qualifying from each of the two events, with a further four places available from the Q Tour Order of Merit. All matches were the best of seven frames.
Event 1 The first 2016 Q School event was held from 11 to 16 May 2016. Fang Xiongman, Christopher Keogan, Cao Yupeng and Chen Zhe qualified. The results of the four final matches are given below.
4–3 4–0 4–0 4–1
Event 2 The second 2016 Q School event was held from 17 to 22 May 2016. Michael Georgiou, John Astley, Alex Borg and David John qualified. The results of the four final matches are given below.
4–1 4–0 4–2 4–1
Q School Order of Merit A Q School Order of Merit was produced for players who didn't qualify automatically from the two events. Four places on the main tour were given to the leading four players in the Order of Merit, Craig Steadman, Jamie Curtis-Barrett, Ian Preece and Adam Duffy. The Order of Merit was also used to top up fields for the 2016–17 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, those with Q in brackets were awarded places on the main tour. Rank Player Event 1 Event 2 Total1 Craig Steadman (Q) 17 21 382 Jamie Curtis-Barrett (Q) 19 17 363 Ian Preece (Q) 18 17 354 Adam Duffy (Q) 18 16 345 Adam Stefanow 19 13 326 Andy Hicks 13 19 327 Brandon Sargeant 15 15 308 Peter Lines 10 20 309 Zak Surety 9 21 3010 Daniel Womersley 23 6 29
Two-season performance of qualifiers The following table shows the rankings of the 12 qualifiers from the 2016 Q School, at the end of the 2017–18 snooker season, the end of their two guaranteed seasons on the tour, together with their tour status for the 2018–19 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 2017–18 season Status for 2018–19 season Money Ranking 32,150 90 Amateur 8,550 119 Amateur 132,525 38 Retained place on tour 17,500 106 Amateur 107.737 49 Retained place on tour 81,725 66 Qualified through the one-year list 18,100 103 Amateur 2,337 128 Amateur 32,550 89 Qualified through the 2018 Q School 11,100 115 Amateur 39,100 84 Amateur 33,362 87 Amateur
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