2018–19 Challenge Tour

The Challenge Tour 2018/2019 was a series of snooker tournaments that took place during the 2018–19 season. It was a second-tier tour for players not on the main World Snooker Tour.^[1] The top two players in the final rankings earned a two-year card to the World Snooker Tour for 2019–20.^[2]

2018–19 Challenge Tour

Details
Duration	2 June 2018 – 7 March 2019 (2018-06-02 – 2019-03-07)
Tournaments	10
← 2004/2005 2019/2020 →

Brandon Sargeant was certain of his place in the top two even before the final event. Prior to the draw for the final event, Sargeant led the rankings and only David Grace and Mitchell Mann could catch him. Sargeant could only drop to third if both Grace and Mann reached the final. However, when Grace and Mann were drawn in the same half of the draw, Sargeant was guaranteed his place in the top two.^[3] Grace guaranteed his place in the top two after his two nearest challengers, Mann and David Lilley, both lost on the first day of the final event.^[4]

After the season had been finished, additional places became available on the main tour for 2019/2020 season and it was decided that an extra tour place would be given to the third placed player on the ranking list, Mitchell Mann.^[5]

Format

Each event had a maximum field of 64. The leading 64 players in the 2018 Q School Order of Merit, excluding the 12 who qualified for the main tour, were automatically eligible to play. If some of these did not enter, eight wildcards became eligible and if there are still less than 64 entries, players outside the top-64 in the Q School Order of Merit could enter.^[1]

All matches were over five frames. The winner of each event received prize money of £2,000 out of a total of £10,000. The runner-up received £1,000, semi-finalists £700, quarter-finalists £500, last-16 losers £200 and last-32 losers £125.^[6]

Schedule

Date		Country	Tournament	Venue	City	Field	Winner	Runner-up	Score	Ref.
2 June	3 June	ENG	Event 1	Meadowside Leisure Centre	Burton upon Trent	59	Brandon Sargeant	Luke Simmonds	3–1	[7]
10 July	11 July	ENG	Event 2	Preston Guild Hall	Preston	64	David Grace	Mitchell Mann	3–0	[8]
28 July	28 July	LAT	Event 3	Arena Riga	Riga	25	Barry Pinches	Jackson Page	3–2	[9]
27 Aug	28 Aug	GER	Event 4	Stadthalle	Fürth	42	Mitchell Mann	Dylan Emery	3–0	[10]
18 Sep	19 Sep	ENG	Event 5	Cueball Derby	Derby	61	David Lilley	Brandon Sargeant	3–1	[11]
4 Oct	5 Oct	BEL	Event 6	De Soeverein	Lommel	40	David Grace	Ben Hancorn	3–0	[12]
13 Oct	14 Oct	ENG	Event 7	Barnsley Metrodome	Barnsley	61	Joel Walker	Jenson Kendrick	3–0	[13]
24 Nov	25 Nov	HUN	Event 8	Snooker Terminál	Budapest	44	Simon Bedford	David Lilley	3–1	[14]
26 Jan	27 Jan	ENG	Event 9	Star Snooker Academy	Sheffield	56	Adam Duffy	Matthew Glasby	3–1	[15]
6 Mar	7 Mar	ENG	Event 10	South West Snooker Academy	Gloucester	54	George Pragnell	Callum Lloyd	3–2	[4]

Source:^[16]

The event at Riga was planned for two days, but with only 25 entries, it was played in a single day.

Rankings

The leaders in the rankings were:

Rank	Player	Event 1	Event 2	Event 3	Event 4	Event 5	Event 6	Event 7	Event 8	Event 9	Event 10	Total (£)
1	Brandon Sargeant	2,000	700	700	200	1,000	125	700	500	700	0	6,625
2	David Grace	700	2,000	200	500	125	2,000	125	125	0	700	6,475
3	Mitchell Mann	700	1,000	500	2,000	500	500	125	200	200	125	5,850
4	David Lilley	200	–	–	–	2,000	–	500	1,000	500	200	4,400
5	Barry Pinches	0	0	2,000	125	500	125	700	125	0	500	4,075

Source:^[17]

Players in the qualifying places are shown in green. Initially two qualifying places were available but a third place was allocated after the end of the season.