We’re onto the first of the European tour of Q Tour events, it’s quite right an event stopped off in Belgium – a country with a great past and future in the game with the likes of Luca Brecel, Ben Mertens and Julien Leclercq on tour currently. Past players from the nineties like Bjorn Haneveer, Patrick Delsemme and Mario Geudens weren’t too shabby either.
The Belgian Amateur Championship was first established in 1984 with four of the above names (Haneveer, Delsemme, Geudens and Brecel) registering at least one win each.
The current champion (back to back winner in 2019 and 2022) is Kevin Hanssens who is present here in Event 3 (amongst many other Belgian amateurs) where Mons’ The Delta Moon club are the host venue.
Martin O’Donnell currently sits at number one in the Q Tour rankings list after taking the title in Event 2 in Brighton.
I’m avoiding the bottom half in the outrights as it looks rather congested to me with the opening two event winners O’Donnell and Ross Muir in there, with the opening two events runner-up George Pragnall plus Daniel Wells, Liam Davies, Rory McLeod, Zhao Jianbo and Andrew Higginson to name a few. In fact, six of the top 10 in the rankings lie in the bottom section. It looks a minefield.
The top half does look a little easier and if the first two events are anything to go by, you may have to look at players who have been playing on the main tour this season as top-ups. That’s exactly where I’m going with my one of my picks in the top half.
Starting off with the favourite for the event, Michael Holt at 9/1. Sooner or later, he’s gotta come good in one of these and I predict an event overseas might be where the Nottingham native clicks into full gear.
Since the back end of last season where sadly he lost his tour card after over two decades on tour, Holt is progressing nicely as a coach of the game. Even though Michael was well renowned to being a player who lived every shot in his career with plenty of histrionics (but great to watch!) at the table, I can imagine Michael is all fun to work with, as he has a vast knowledge and ultimately a huge passion for the sport at all levels. I credit him immensely as I personally wouldn’t have the patience!
Onto now and his assault to getting back amongst the pro ranks. Holt has lots of form lines in Europe when he was professional from 1998 to this year, which could bode well in event three.
His first ranking final was in 2016 in Riga, Latvia. In the old PTC’s set up by World Snooker, he won the Prague Classic in 2010 beating John Higgins in the final. He also made the Pro-Am finals in the Dutch and German Opens twice winning one each from 2005 to 2007. I like the fact also he’s performed well in China on many occasions going to quarter-finals and semis.
He will be the most experienced of the whole field in playing abroad and adjusting to a new time of day though Belgium are only an hour in front of us.
I can’t obviously speak for Michael, but I wonder if he’s slightly disliking the best-of-five formats in the early rounds at Q Tour. It really is dog eat dog. That was underlined in event two when he led Liam Graham 2-0 and lost the next three. He’ll be desperate to make the quarter-finals when it goes more in the better players favour to best-of-seven.
It’s horrible to look at draws ‘on paper’ especially in this oh so unforgiving format but he does have a draw to do some damage in Mons. At worst, he should make the last 16 here – I only see English Amateur champion Jamie Curtis-Barrett being his chief threat and even he has three matches to win before then.
The quarters could be any of Harvey Chandler, Ian Martin, Stan Moody or Robbie McGuigan. All good players. Or in this format, someone different. I really don’t think it’s overtaxing for Holty.
If he’s going to turn a corner and start building ahead of steam in the Q Tour rankings, here in Mons looks perfect for Holt – if he doesn’t try too hard, he really should give his best account of the season and go close to the title.
The other player I like the look of is Rotherham’s Ashley Carty at 14/1, a player who beat Holt in Event one.
It’s been three and a half weeks since Event two so I hope Carty has recovered from a sickening loss in that event. He lost in the semi-final to eventual winner O’Donnell 4-3. A decider defeat was bad enough but O’Donnell required two snookers in the final frame, got them, and snatched it on the black. A cruel blow.
He will have to look back positively to the performances in that event as he was probably the player of the tournament. In his 16 frames won he compiled 14 breaks over 50: 127, 115, 97, 95, 94, 87, 74, 73, 71 x2, 66, 61 and 51 x2. Superb scoring.
Carty, like Holt dropped off the tour in May and failed to get back on at Q School. Unlike Holt, Carty didn’t accrue enough points at Q School to get tour top ups. If nothing else, Carty was always very competitive against whoever he faced last season. In 16 matches of best-of-7, 9 or 11, he didn’t get whitewashed once and only won one frame on three occasions (two were against Mark Selby and Barry Hawkins). You have to go back to February 2021 for the last time he was whitewashed (excluding the Championship league).
Last season he still beat Stephen Maguire 5-1, Jordan Brown 4-2, Jamie Jones 4-2 and lost narrowly to Ricky Walden 5-3, Ryan Day 5-4, Kyren Wilson 4-2 and Stuart Bingham 4-3. That is top form in this context. Let’s also remember, in 2020, Carty qualified for the Crucible so impressively.
The threats in Carty’s mini section here comes from former Crucible qualifier Luo Honghao (11/1) though he hasn’t been seen since dropping off the tour in 2020-21 as he failed to turn up for this years Asia’s Q School in June due to visa problems. Luo has ridiculous ability however at the same time always been easy to get at mentally for me. This is a tough introduction and for certain shouldn’t be shorter than Carty in the outrights.
If Carty does make the quarters, I think last season pro Steven Hallworth or World Under 21 champion Florian Nuessle could be lofty opponents. Carty lost to Hallworth recently at the end of September on the English Amateur Tour 4-2. That’s the first time Hallworth has beaten Carty in tournament play.
Providing Carty, who cues using his dominant right eye, is in a similar mood to in Brighton, he must be in with a very good chance of taking the title here or at the very least go deep. Carty has that touch of class at this level, the consistency required and demonstrated it both quite recently at a higher level, which not too many have in the field.
My last fancy is a speculative punt on 18-year-old Liam Graham at 125/1, again in this top half. There’s no doubt he is Scotland’s best young prospect.
Graham lost in the Scottish Amateur final in August to Michael Collumb after defeating Q Tour Event 1 champion, Muir in the semis. Graham retained his Scottish Under 21 title in June with a very dominant display.
On the junior scene this past year, Graham lost 4-3 to Anton Kazakov in the World Junior Championship quarter-final. Kazakov went on to the win the title which gave him professional status for this season. Graham also went very well in last years October edition of the European Under 18 Championship, losing in the semi-final to now pro, Ben Mertens. He had defeated Kazakov in the last 16 and World Under 16, 18 and 21 champion, Liam Davies in the quarters.
I know a few Scottish professional players on tour and they are wax lyrical about Graham’s future in the sport. He’s a very dedicated player and prepared for Q Tour Event 1 in Antrim playing Mark Allen and Jordan Brown in practise.
After an early exit in Event 1 (no disgrace losing to Curtis-Barrett) Liam went encouragingly well in Event 2, winning three matches, including over Holt and gaining revenge on Collumb. His run was ended by eventual champion, O’Donnell 3-2 in the second round. He showed his immense promise with a 76 clearance to get the match into a final frame.
Graham has gained a wildcard at the Scottish Open main arena where he’ll face recent British Open semi-finalist Robbie Williams. Talking of Williams, providing Graham wins his opener in Mons, he faces off with Steven Hallworth who lost to Williams in the last 16 in Milton Keynes recently. Hallworth is a class act but he has started shoddily so far at Q Tour losing to Hamim Hussain in Event 1 and Alfie Lee in Event 2 which makes me think Graham will have more than a sniff here as I think he’s better than that pair.
The draw does open up if he can shock the lad from Lincolnshire, and could meet Carty in the quarters. The bookies have taken note of Graham’s potential from Event 2 (was 200/1 in that) though he still looks worth a nibble at 125/1 as I think he deserves to be in double figures round the 80/1 mark.
Recommended Bets: (back each-way)
Michael Holt 9/1 Bet365
Ashley Carty 14/1 Bet365
Liam Graham 125/1 Bet365
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