World Championship Qualifying

[LittleMissAlexa]

As it stands the 8 are 1) Li Yan 2) Adam Duffy 3) Passakorn Suwannawat 4) Simon Bedford 5) Dechawat Poomjaeng 6) Craig Steadman (ex tour) 7) Kurt Maflin 8) David Grace

[jw147]

Wattana 4-0 ahead, now 4-5 down.

[LittleMissAlexa]

just to clarify i know 64 is enough to qualify but Liam Highfield hasnt secured the 64th spot as the likes of Liu Song are still in the tournament

[LittleMissAlexa]

how are ties on the order of merit decided? currently Highfield is number 64 and has 3000 David Grace at the moment is the last Order of merit qualifier with 3000

[LittleMissAlexa]

Gilbert has just ssneaksed into the top 64 knocking Liu Song out which means Liu has to win as hes way down on the order of merit Gilbert moving up promotes David Grace to a provisional tour place next season so Grace will be hoping Gilbert does well

[LittleMissAlexa]

and ladies it was me who brought Gilbert up

also we dont know who is through from PTCs yet as we dont fully know whos dropping off if someone higher in the ptc order of merit loses his top 64 place during this qualifying someone on the order of merit will drop off we dont know until the top 64 is mathematically secure

[missneworleans]

Such a shame to see Joe and Ian out of the tour, very nice players and lads
David Gilbert is safe, he's through via ptc

[MasterBreak147]

Don't quote me but I'm sure Simon has a back injury and has had it a while already.

[DartsMadJohn]

I was looking at the rankings for this season and noticed that six of the players on the tour didn't enter the Crucible qualifiers (Bedford, Hull, Mackenzie, Hogan, Haneveer and Meara). Any reason for that? Sorry if this has been covered before. Looks like they haven't entered the last few tournaments.

Bedford is going to survive via the PTC route, so he is probably saving some money (although why you skip the Worlds is beyond me).

Haneveer quit the Main Tour

Hull retired before through illness, so hopefully that hasn't struck again.

Hogan, Meara and Mackenzie I assume just ran out of funds! Also, they;re all in a position where they would need a ridiculous run, such as last 16 or Quarters, just to have a chance of Tour survival, which isn't going to happen.

[brusque]

agreed ... i will miss him too ... loved his nickname as well ... "Outlaw"

[trains]

Was I on the wrong type of leaves with thinking McCulloch would win! He didn't play that well though,interesting to see if Brecel doesn't enter q school as he'll probably get invited back anyway.

[LittleMissAlexa]

Theres quite a few long time tour players loooking at the trap door and I havent seen whos going through on the order of merit although i know Li Yan (a new tour player) is guaranteed to stay on tour

outside the top 64 include Rod The Plod (hope he retires) Ian McCulloch (ex top 16) James Wattana (ex top 16) Adrian Gunnell i do hope Dave Gilbert stays on hes plaid to well this season to drop off hes hit more than 20 centuries

I dont think Andy Hicks is secure (greatest breakbuilder never to of made the top 16) or Barry Pinches i do hope the chinese players stay on Liu Song it would be unjust to eliminate him as hes had some points taken off due to covering for John Higgins last season

[trains]

I was looking at the rankings for this season and noticed that six of the players on the tour didn't enter the Crucible qualifiers (Bedford, Hull, Mackenzie, Hogan, Haneveer and Meara). Any reason for that? Sorry if this has been covered before. Looks like they haven't entered the last few tournaments.

Don't know about the others but the qualification criteria for next season is players who qualify via the best ptc 8 outside the top 64 get 2 years guaranteed in the pro's instead of just 1 if you're actually ranked much higher in the top 64,it was unlikely to impossible Bedford would miss out on that luxury so these qualifiers weren't essential for him.
The fact that he's coincidentally gave it a miss and seemingly allowed to seems a bit odd though,also Haneveer retired from pro snooker about 6 months ago.

[intothewild]

Sad to see Joe Swail fall off the tour. Always seemed like a decent guy when I saw him on TV. Good luck to him and I also hope to see him back one day. I don't know if he'll attempt to come back now that he's 42. It seems to have been a pretty sudden decline with him considering he was in the Crucible as recently as 2009. I've been watching the live streams of the qualifying and it's a pity they didn't show that match.

[jarcher]

World Championship Qualifying

Thanks DandyA, will pass on your kind words. I don't know Ian personally but I know Joe is a good friend of his. The one thing I can say about Joe, is he's a true gent off the table as well as on. A real top notch, down to earth guy who hasn't let his professional career change who he is