Challenge Tour (snooker)

The concept of a secondary professional tour was first experimented with in the 1994–95 season in the form of the WPBSA Minor Tour to provide competition for lower ranked professionals, but only ran for a season.[3] Due to over-subscription of the World Snooker Tour, a two-tiered tour structure was adopted from the 1997–98 season resulting in the Main Tour and the UK Tour. The Main Tour had an exclusive membership, whereas initially the whole professional membership could compete on the UK Tour and the best performers could earn promotion.[2] From the 1999–2000 season, entry was limited to players not competing on the Main Tour,[2] and from the 2001–02 season the UK Tour itself had an exclusive membership.[4] From the 2000–01 season it was rebranded the Challenge Tour.[3]

In its first season there were five events, but the number was reduced to four in the following seasons.[3] There were two official maximum breaks at the UK Tour, both in the 1998–99 season; the first was made by Stuart Bingham against Barry Hawkins in Event 3, and the second by Nick Dyson against Adrian Gunnell in Event 4.[2]

The tour was discontinued after 2004–05 season, but the concept was revived with the introduction of the Pro Challenge Series in 2009–10.[5] Only four of the planned seven events were played before the series was axed due to low player participation.[6] The 2010–11 season saw the introduction of the Players Tour Championship, a secondary tour comprising tournaments carrying ranking points, but at a much lower tariff than the major televised tournaments.

The Challenge Tour was revived in the 2018–19 season, consisting of ten events each played over one or two days, with prize money offered and a maximum field of 72 players (top 64 of the Q School Order of Merit, plus eight wildcards). The top two players from the Challenge Tour Order of Merit received a tour card for the following season.[1] From the 2020–21 season, the Challenge Tour was rebranded as the Q Tour.[7]

[2][3]

Season	Event	Winner	Runner-up	Final score
WPBSA Minor Tour (non-ranking)
1994–95	Event 1	Jamie Woodman	Matt Wilson	6–2
	Event 2	Noppadon Noppachorn	Sammy Chong	8–6
	Event 3	John Lardner	Eddie Manning	5–2
	Event 4	Colin Morton	Matthew Couch	6–5
	Event 5	David Roe	Tony Drago	6–3
	Event 6	Drew Henry	Mark Williams	6–5
UK Tour (non-ranking)
1997–98	Event 1	Paul McPhillips	Michael Holt	6–5
	Event 2	Mark Fenton	Antony Bolsover	6–4
	Event 3	Simon Bedford	Robert Milkins	6–4
	Event 4	Patrick Wallace	Shaun Murphy	6–4
	Event 5	Paul Sweeny	Hugh Abernethy	6–5
1998–99	Event 1	Alfie Burden	Anthony Davies	6–5
	Event 2	Joe Swail	Alfie Burden	6–1
	Event 3	Stuart Bingham	Matthew Couch	6–1
	Event 4	James Reynolds	Jason Ferguson	6–4
1999–2000	Event 1	Matt Wilson	Barry Hawkins	6–4
	Event 2	Andrew Higginson	Scott MacKenzie	6–3
	Event 3	Simon Bedford	Barry Hawkins	6–5
	Event 4	Barry Hawkins	Craig Butler	6–1
Challenge Tour (non-ranking)
2000–01	Event 1	Adrian Rosa	Surinder Gill	6–4
	Event 2	Andrew Norman	Luke Fisher	6–3
	Event 3	Shaun Murphy	Andrew Norman	6–3
	Event 4	Shaun Murphy	Luke Simmonds	6–2
2001–02	Event 1	James Reynolds	Steve Judd	6–5
	Event 2	Leo Fernandez	Ryan Day	6–3
	Event 3	Lee Spick	Joe Delaney	6–3
	Event 4	David Gilbert	Ryan Day	6–3
2002–03	Event 1	Chris Melling	Tom Ford	6–2
	Event 2	Adrian Rosa	Stuart Mann	6–5
	Event 3	Michael Rhodes	Luke Simmonds	6–5
	Event 4	Kurt Maflin	James Leadbetter	6–2
2003–04	Event 1	Stefan Mazrocis	Paul Davison	6–2
	Event 2	Hugh Abernethy	Gary Wilson	6–0
	Event 3	Brian Salmon	Steve James	6–1
	Event 4	Gary Wilson	Jin Long	6–4
2004–05	Event 1	Jamie Cope	Chris Norbury	6–2
	Event 2	James Tatton	Matthew Barnes	6–4
	Event 3	James McBain	Mark Allen	6–3
	Event 4	Jamie Cope	Matthew Couch	6–0
Challenge Tour (amateur)
2018–19	Event 1	Brandon Sargeant	Luke Simmonds	3–1
	Event 2	David Grace	Mitchell Mann	3–0
	Event 3	Barry Pinches	Jackson Page	3–2
	Event 4	Mitchell Mann	Dylan Emery	3–0
	Event 5	David Lilley	Brandon Sargeant	3–1
	Event 6	David Grace	Ben Hancorn	3–0
	Event 7	Joel Walker	Jenson Kendrick	3–0
	Event 8	Simon Bedford	David Lilley	3–1
	Event 9	Adam Duffy	Matthew Glasby	3–1
	Event 10	George Pragnell	Callum Lloyd	3–2
2019–20	Event 1	Ka Wai Cheung	Oliver Brown	3–1
	Event 2	Jake Nicholson	Andrew Pagett	3–1
	Event 3	Andrew Pagett	Robbie McGuigan	3–0
	Event 4	Ashley Hugill	Aaron Hill	3–1
	Event 5	Allan Taylor	Michael Collumb	3–1
	Event 6	Oliver Brown	Ashley Hugill	3–1
	Event 7	Dean Young	Andrew Pagett	3–1
	Event 8	Lukas Kleckers	Tyler Rees	3–1
	Event 9	Ashley Hugill	Sydney Wilson	3–1
	Event 10	Adam Duffy	Kuldesh Johal	3–1
	Tour Playoff	Allan Taylor	Adam Duffy	4–0

[2]

Season	Winner
UK Tour (non-ranking)
1997/1998	Paul McPhillips
1998/1999	Alfie Burden
1999/2000	Barry Hawkins
Challenge Tour (non-ranking)
2000/2001	Shaun Murphy
2001/2002	Ryan Day
2002/2003	Martin Gould
2003/2004	Brian Salmon
2004/2005	Jamie Cope
Challenge Tour (amateur)
2018/2019	Brandon Sargeant
2019/2020	Ashley Hugill