Q School Event One 2012 - And the first four winners are ...

The first four

The first "trimester" of the Q School is over so it's graduation time for four players that stood the test of time (aka. five days). Their names are: Sam Baird, Martin O'Donnell, Ian Burns and Chen Zhe.

It's like he never left the Main Tour for Sammy who regained his spot next to the stars of snooker after starting his race with a perfect 4-0 whitewash against the Polish prodigy Kacper Filipiac, continuing it in the same way by playing George Marter, then "The Assassin" Allan Taylor, James Cahill and Nick Jennings in the quarter-finals.

It seemed like an easy road for Baird, considering that every match was won with a 4-0 scoreline, but that doesn't mean it wasn't hard work. So we are proud to welcome back the man who represents the Pink Army in such a unique way.

Baid is back on tour

After winning the Snookerbacker Classic tournament, Martin O'Donnell caught the public eye, even though, in all honesty, the public eye was a bit lazy regarding him, for he needed acknowledgement way before winning a tournament. 

The lad that loves snooker more than anything proved it's time for the world to take him seriously, so he got his cue into action hammering Declan Brennan 4-1, ending on a tense 4-3 scoreline with Alex Taubman, going back to base and scoring a perfect 4-0 in front of Jamie Clarke, then returning to 4-3 by taking on Paul Davison, only to end his journey in the same way he started it, by obtaining a 4-1 victory against Adrian Ridley.

MOD after winning Snookerbacker Classic

Ian Burns is also one of the lucky players that gets to perform on the Main Tour for two seasons to come, and although the Englishman started his snooker marathon in a very light way (his first opponent, David Singh pulling out of the event), he proved to be well worthy of a place next to the heavy names of the snooker industry after taking down Adrian Gunnell by 4-3, Nick Dyson by 4-1, Daniel Wells by 4-2 and a very dangerous Rod Lawler by 4-3.

It must be said that after the 138 break that Davison made, Burns' 131 was the highest second century break of the Q School Event One, closely followed by Sam Baird's 129 one.

Ian Burns gets to play with the stars

Last but far from being the least, Chen Zhe has finally made it in the big league. The 19-year-old Chinese player cruised towards reaching the finish-line by facing powerful opponents like Joe Delaney, whom he crushed 4-0, Kyren Wilson 4-1, Sydney Wilson 4-3, Chris Norbury 4-2 and Jordan Brown who was hammered by 4-1.

China's Chen is pretty Zen

Not as lucky were legend Steve Davis' son, Greg, who lost his first match to Alex Taubman 4-3, nor the legend himself Tony Knowles who got beat 4-2 by Nick Dyson, or the Women's champion Reanne Evans who was crashed 4-0 by Scotland's Ross Muir. However all three of them have enrolled in the second event, so hopefully they'll make their big breakthrough in a few days.

From today on, for the next five days another series of cue crossings are going to kick off as the Q School Event Two is now underway.

Below you have Day One match schedule:

Round 1

10am

1pm

4pm

7pm
*all hours are UK time