Taylor Made Up At Tour Return

Allan Taylor beat Adam Duffy 4-0 in the final of the Challenge Tour Play-off to seal a return to the World Snooker Tour, earning a two-year tour card.

Liverpool’s Taylor had dropped off the circuit at the end of the 2018/19 campaign, he subsequently missed out on immediately bouncing back at Q School.

However, Taylor remained involved in the circuit, taking up the opportunity to become WST’s Home Nations Master of Ceremonies for this season. Today’s victory at the English Institute of Sport ensured him a return to a more familiar profession.

The event involved the top eight players on the Challenge Tour Order of merit, who have yet to secure professional status for next season.

Taylor came from 3-1 down to beat Oliver Brown 4-3 in his first round tie, making a break of 130 in the process. He then beat Jake Nicholson 4-1, before whitewashing Adam Duffy to once again become a professional snooker player.

Taylor said: “I’m over the moon. I’ve come here after lockdown, everyone has struggled. Something has clicked the last couple of days, which was perfect timing for me. It has been a fantastic job that everyone has done in the hotel and here to get us to this stage. I can’t thank them enough.

“There is no crowd, just pure focus. It was just me, Adam and Brendan Moore the referee. You’d think it would be a bit of a relaxed environment, but it was certainly still intense.

“It was bittersweet being the MC at the Home Nations. I snapped up the opportunity, you can’t miss out on something like that. I made a tough decision to miss some of the Challenge Tour events for that. Thankfully I still made the Play-offs.

“I possibly wouldn’t have managed this without the experience on the carpet as the MC. In my mind there were three players at the end of the week and I was one of them, albeit with a tuxedo and a microphone. I haven’t been deep in the Home Nations as a player, so for me to be MC and work the crowd and get that response, it was a massive boost in confidence.”