Under-20 RDT Review & Junior Play-Offs | Full Details

Riley Fisher, Chae Ross, and Jack Haley all won the fifth and final events in their respective areas on the Under-20 Regional Development Tour last weekend.

At the Halifax Snooker Club in the North section, event three winner Fisher claimed his second tour title of the campaign after a busy day of action. Fisher finished second in Group C to qualify for the knockouts where he defeated Bailey Fisher, event two and four winner Stanley Moody, Daniel Boyes and then event one victor Matthew Lawton 2-0 in the final. Harrison Dewar made the day’s highest break with a 73.

Ross completed a hat-trick of Midlands tour triumphs at the Cueball Derby. Having ended the group phase top with six wins from six, Ross eliminated Callum Brayne 2-0 in the last four and then recovered from losing the first frame to get the better of rival Halim Hussain 2-1 in the final. Earlier in the day Ross constructed the event’s top run of 96 where he was on for a maximum after depositing 12 reds and blacks. After missing the opening event, of the four he has played in, Ross has won three and reached the final in the other.

Another cueist who made it a trio of event titles on this season’s circuit was Jack Haley in the South region. At Jesters Snooker Hall in Swindon, Haley didn’t drop a frame as he progressed from his group before advancing through the knockouts with victories over Lee Whaley, Ryan Hughes and then Adam Stacey, 2-0, in the final. A 64 from Oshay Scott was the highest break of the day.

Thank you to all the venues and officials for last weekend’s events.

The Final Rankings

The full ranking lists can be viewed under the ‘Tournaments’ tab of our website here. 

Following the conclusion of the final round of events on the tour, Matthew Lawton (North), Halim Hussain (Midlands) and Jack Haley (South) are all champions of their regions having finished number one in the respective rankings.

Lawton accumulated 490 points, ahead of second placed Moody (395) and third placed Fisher (390). 

Event one and four winner Hussain racked up 600 points, in front of Ross on 575. With a semi-final finish at event five, Matthew Gorton climbed up into third on 225. 

Haley totted up 615 points with event four winner Steven Hughes (535) and Stacey (430) completing the top three. 

Promotion and Play-Offs 

The top three from each region are automatically promoted onto the top tier 2020/21 Under-21 Premier Development Tour. Congratulations go to: 

North – Matthew Lawton (first), Stanley Moody (second), Riley Fisher (third) 

Midlands – Halim Hussain (first), Chae Ross (second), Matthew Gorton (third) 

South – Jack Haley (first), Steven Hughes (second), Adam Stacey (third) 

Players who finished fourth to seventh in each region qualify for the Junior Play-Offs on the 19th April at North East Derbyshire Snooker Club, Clay Cross, Chesterfield. These players are: 

North – Michael Roberts, Aidan Gallagher, Samuel Lee Stevens, Adam Williams 

Midlands – Callum Brayne, Ryan Roberts, Westley Cooper, Edward Jones 

South – Ryan Hughes, Lee Whaley, Aristos Pampouris, Ronnie Sullivan 

(Should a player decide not to enter the Junior Play-Offs, the next highest ranked player from that respective region will be invited to play) 

Seven players from this season’s Under-21 Premier Development Tour will not be eligible for next season’s tour. These are: 

Lennard Cripps, Alex Clenshaw (did not enter a minimum of three events this season) 

Mark Lloyd, Brandon Hall, Manasawin Phetmalaikul, Jed Mann, Sam Dexter (will not be age eligible) 

Following this weekend’s final Under-21 PDT event in Coulsdon, the bottom six players on the ranking list (excluding any of the seven players in the lists directly above) will go into the Junior Play-Offs. 

In total, this means 13 will initially drop off the Premier Tour and these will be replaced by the nine automatically promoted under-20 regional players and four from the junior play-offs. 

The Junior Play-Offs 

A total of 18 players are scheduled to be in the Junior Play-Offs – the 6 bottom eligible players from the 2019/20 Under-21 Premier Development Tour and the 12 players from the 2019/20 Under-20 Regional Development Tour.  

These players will be competing for four places on the 2020/21 Under-21 Premier Development Tour. 

The format will consist of four round robin groups – two groups of five and two groups of four. 

The six under-21 PDT players will be seeded, so two of the groups will have two of them in and the other two groups will have one of them in. The remaining under-20 RDT players will be drawn at random. 

Group matches will be the best of three frames. The top two from each group will qualify for the play-off knockout round. 

The play-off knockout round will be group winners v group runners-up. These matches will be the best of five frames. 

The four winners will qualify for the 2020/21 Under-21 Premier Development Tour. 

27/02/2019 | PLEASE NOTE: Since this article was originally published, Kaif Shazad has become ineligible to enter next season’s Under-21 Premier Development Tour due to not completing three or more events on this season’s tour.

Shazad will be replaced by Dylan Kemp (North) in the Junior Play-Offs, who was the highest scoring eighth placed finisher from all Under-20 Regional Development Tour areas.

This now means there will be five players from this season’s Under-21 PDT competing in the Junior Play-Offs. These players will be seeded with two of them in one group and one of them in each of the other three groups.