Simon Blackwell Wins in Woking

Simon Blackwell defeated Jake Robinson in the final of the 2023/24 EPSB Open Series play-offs to secure the title and a free entry into the 2024 Q School.

• Results

Blackwell joins the EPSB Open Series overall winner Jack Bradford in earning a free entry to the World Snooker  Tour qualifying event where the opportunity to join the world’s elite will be on offer.

Bradford confirmed top spot in the rankings by the slimmest of margins, reaching the semi-finals at the final regular season event at Landywood Snooker Club on 31 March to finish above Peter Devlin on count back. The next 16 eligible players in the rankings then headed to the Woking Snooker Centre for the end-of-season play-offs.

The 31-year-old did not lose a single frame all day as he stormed through the field in Surrey, starting with a dominant 3-0 victory over last year’s English Under-14 champion Shaun Liu with breaks of 62 and 82.

Blackwell next defeated Hamim Hussain, who had overcome his brother Halim 3-1 in the opening round, before whitewashing Billy West with a top break of 70.

In the final he met Robinson, the winner of the final English Amateur Tour event of the season, who had beaten John Donovan, Anthony Wall and top seed Devlin en-route to the title match.

Blackwell’s unstoppable form continued, however, as breaks of 64, 77 and a further 64 completed a fourth consecutive 3-0 victory to secure the crown in Woking.

The EPSB would like to thank all of the competitors, venues and officials that have taken part in the 2023/24 EPSB Open Series. Information on the 2024/25 series will be released in due course.