James Cahill is relieved to have come through World Snooker's Q School

The 26-year-old gained a two-year tour card after progressing through the final Q School qualifying tournament in Sheffield on Thursday.

Having failed with two previous attempts to come through Q School last month, it was third time lucky for the Blackpool man who had dropped off the main circuit at the end of the 2020/21 campaign.

A 4-1 defeat of China’s Zhao Jianbo saw him claim one of the final four cards on offer, alongside John Astley, Jenson Kendrick and Lukas Kleckers.

Speaking to World Snooker afterwards, Cahill admitted: “‘Brutal’ is the word for this event.

“It is hard because there is a lot of pressure. When you commit your life to it, and it is your only chance to get on, it is hard.

“I didn’t really want to go and play the Q Tours. There is a lot of pressure out there to win. I am just glad I held myself together.

“I’m delighted to get through. I just want to say thank you to (professional player) Peter Lines, who’s come down for this event and the last one and supported me.

“He didn’t need to do that. He’s got experience of getting through this as well, so I just want to say thank you to him.”

Cahill lost 4-1 to Kleckers in round three of this year’s first qualifier before going down 4-3 against Ross Bulman in round four of the second event.

Victories this week against Jack Haley, Alfie Davies, Saqib Nasir and Florian Nuessle set up Cahill for his match against Zhao, with breaks of 69, 68 and 79 helping him to progress.

Cahill added: “There’s a lot of players you don’t know but they’re really good players.

“People watch my game sometimes and think ‘Why’s he playing so bad, how’s he lost this?’

“It’s simply because I’ve not put the hours in really, normally anyway. When I’m putting the hours in and my head’s in the right space, I start getting a few results.

“I’m going to really commit to this next two years and, hopefully, not come back here for this again!”