PTCs To Offer Main Tour Place

At the end of the 2011/12 season, the top eight players (amateur or professional) on the PTC order of merit who have not already finished in the top 64 of the world rankings will get a place on the World Snooker tour for the 2012/13 season.

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This replaces the criteria used for the 2011/12 season, where only Tour players among those eight players on the Order of Merit were eligible.

World Snooker Chairman Barry Hearn said: "This is another step towards opening the game up, giving everybody a chance to qualify and making sure we have the best players on the professional Tour.

"Last season there were some fantastic performances in the PTC events from amateurs such as Daniel Wells and Michael Wasley, and this time we are rewarding amateurs and giving them every encouragement to enter the PTC events.

"We are going into new territories with the PTC series this season and hoping to broadcast some of the European ones on Eurosport. The players are realising now that these events are not to be missed and I hope to see record numbers."

The first four events in the series are now open for entry - all the details can be found in the entry pack which can be downloaded here. DON'T MISS YOUR CHANCE TO BE PART OF THE PTC SERIES. THE CLOSING DATE FOR ENTRIES IS JUNE 7TH.

There will be 12 events in the PTC series, six in the UK and six in Europe. Players will be listed in the Order of Merit according to how much money they have won, with the top 24 to go through to the Grand Finals.

" Article courtesy of World Snooker

This is great news for any aspiring amateur player looking for another route to get on the main tour apart from the Q School system. Top amateur Daniel Wells already proved to us last year that it is possible for an amateur to do well in the PTC events by beating the likes of Jimmy White, Jamie Cope and Neil Robertson and reaching the semi-finals of EPTC1. Daniel narrowly missed out on a spot in the PTC Grand Finals, but will be on this upcoming season's main tour anyway by recieving a nomination from Welsh Snooker.

There was more good news revealed in the entry pack for the first four PTC's in the fact that one of the tables from the first EPTC event in Furth, Germany will have some form of coverage from EuroSport. This is great news considering that none of the events were available to watch on TV last season and only EPTC4 from the South West Snooker Academy was streamed on the internet.

Speaking of the academy it has been confirmed that they will get the chance to host not one, but two PTC events this year (PTC2 8-10 August and PTC7 7-9 October) which is more than fitting considering what a good job they did with EPTC4 last year. The facilities for the players is top notch and they have loads of seats available for spectators to watch the matches, including a massive arena (See Jimmy White and Stephen Lee playing in EPTC4 here). And to top it off they get to host the UK Championship qualifiers in November which should make some great spectating, especially in the last few days.