TALENTED Barry snooker player Alfie Davies suffered an agonising final frame defeat to former professional Michael Holt in the final of Q Tour 6 in Sofia, Bulgaria on Sunday, 7th January.
The event brought together 77 of the best players based in Europe who do not currently have professional tour status, and Davies’s run to the final was arguably the most significant achievement of his career to date.
Among those taking part were an array of younger players with junior titles at European and world level, along with more experienced names who have fallen off the professional tour, which is restricted to only 128 players per season.
In his opening match, Davies, 23, faced a difficult test as he came through a decider to beat 21-year-old Englishman Halim Hussain 3-2.
The following round saw Davies produce breaks of 50 and 52 to help him go 2-0 in front against vastly experienced English amateur Simon Dent, but despite being pulled back to 2-2 he went on to win the decider on the colours.
Davies’s next opponent was Iulian Boiko, an 18-year-old Ukrainian who finished runner-up at the European Under 21 Championship last year. Davies took the opening frame with a run of 58, but after Boiko produced a 70 to go 2-1 in front, Davies recomposed himself to take the following two tactical frames to progress.
In the quarter-finals was fellow Welshman Liam Davies, 17, who has an array of European and world junior titles to his name, and is widely-regarded as one of the most talented young prospects the game has seen in many years, but the Barry man prevailed as breaks of 82, 72 and 70 helped him to a 4-0 whitewash.
In the semi-finals, Davies faced Harvey Chandler, best known for beating Jordan Brown to win the European Amateur Championship in 2018, but Davies dominated the encounter as runs of 76, 67 and 55 aided him to a 4-1 victory.
On the other side of the draw, former professional Michael ‘The Hitman’ Holt, winner of Q Tour events 2 and 5 earlier this season had progressed to the final. He won the Shoot-Out tournament five years ago but went on to lose professional status at the end of the 2021/22 season after 24 years following a dip in form.
Holt, 45, from Nottingham, came into the final against Davies knowing that victory would give him an unassailable lead in the Q Tour Rankings, meaning he would regain professional status for next season.
Davies, who was playing in the final of a Q Tour event for the first time, took two of the opening three frames with breaks of 56 and 78, but Holt won the next to go into the interval level at 2-2.
Davies suffered a 4-1 defeat to Holt in the semi-finals of Q Tour 2 in Stockholm in September, an event Holt went on to win, but this did not appear to be playing on Davies’s mind when they returned from their interval as runs of 60 and 90 put him two frames up with a possible three to play.
Holt, sensing the magnitude of the prize on offer, produced a break of 140 before adding the next to force a decider, which he then won with a 128 to secure his return to the professional ranks.
Following the final, Holt paid tribute to the Barry youngster: “I think Alfie played a bit better than me. I just battled and then from 4-2 down it was backs to the wall time and I thought go out and go for this, trust yourself and they all seemed to go in. In the last frame to pot a great long red like that and win the frame, I’m chuffed,” he said.
Davies currently lies seventh in the Q Tour Rankings with only one event remaining in the regular season, and he is all but certain of making the cut for the top 16 who will qualify for the end-of-season Q Tour Play-Off. They will be joined by the most successful players from equivalent competitions in Asia and the Middle East to compete for three further professional tour cards.
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