Sam Craigie, Hammad Miah, Sam Baird and Jak Jones have all regained their World Snooker Tour status after wins at the Q-School in Burton. The quartet had all dropped out of the pro ranks at the end of the season but they’ve bounced right back onto the main tour. Craigie, 24, will have been as pleased as anyone after he missed out on retaining his tour card by a single place on the one-year money list.
Lyu Haotian’s run to the last-16 of the World Championship in Sheffield was enough to ensure the Newcastle potter missed out in agonising fashion. Craigie first came on the circuit in 2010 after winning the World Under-21 Championship, where he beat his brother Stephen in the semi-finals. He defeated Thailand’s Dechawat Poomjaeng 4-0 in Burton to secure a fresh two-year tour card, compiling composed breaks of 78, 77 and 119 as he eased to the whitewash win. Baird also regained his professional status at the earliest possible opportunity, thanks to a 4-2 defeat of China’s Hu Hao.
He was forced to scramble from 3-2 down against James Silverwood to win 4-3 in the first round at Q-School event one, but he would drop only five frames across the remaining five matches in an impressive run. Like Baird and Craigie, Miah lost his tour card at the end of the season but he too struck back after a 4-0 win over Luke Simmonds. Completing the returning quartet was Welshman Jones, who defeated Northern Ireland’s Jordan Brown 4-2 to regain his full playing status on the main tour.