Michael Holt will be a professional player on the World Snooker Tour again next season after his latest victory on the Q Tour.
The Englishman fought back from 4-2 down in the final to beat Alfie Davies 5-4 and guarantee a two-year professional card.
Holt compiled breaks of 140 and a superb 128 clearance in the decider to clinch the success at Q Tour Event 6 in Bulgaria.
It completes a hat-trick of titles on the Q Tour for Holt in what has been an impressive campaign.
Having previously won Event 2 and Event 5 on the amateur series, the 45 year-old has now accumulated enough ranking points to not be caught in first.
The player ranked in top spot at the end of the Q Tour season will receive a potentially lucrative two-year ticket to the main World Snooker Tour.
Holt competed as a professional player for around 25 years before suffering relegation at the end of the 2021/22 snooker season.
Only a couple of years earlier, the Hitman had enjoyed his career highlight when he took victory in the 2020 Snooker Shoot Out to claim a maiden ranking crown.
Holt also emerged with silverware in two events on the now defunct PTC Series, and he was a runner-up at the 2016 Riga Masters.
The former world number 20 has always been regarded as a talented cueist who has underachieved in the game, with an explosive temperament frequently letting him down.
However, after a couple of years back in the amateur scene, Holt might have regained some of the confidence and swagger of old.
He will definitely be able to participate as a professional player again during the 2024/25 and 2025/26 campaigns.
Earlier in Q Tour 6, Holt beat Chris Totten, Chang Yu Kiu, and Matthew Glasby before conjuring a classy comeback in the final.
Holt has won almost £10,000 from prize money on the Q Tour this season but will be hoping to fight for even greater sums again from next term onward.
“I think Alfie played a bit better than me,” Michael Holt told the WPBSA soon after the Q Tour 6 final.
“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.
“It was a disaster dropping off [the World Snooker Tour] but this year I have reset, set my stall out to get back on, and I was more focused to get back on inside.
“So yeah I’m really pleased. To do it with one to go, especially having missed the first one, I’m chuffed to bits with that.
“I’m proud of myself because it has been tough not being on the tour.
“I tell myself, I tell anyone in this position, this isn’t the mountain. I’m just at base camp.
“The mountain is the rankings, I know that. I’m obviously going to have to play more and dedicate more time to it, which I’m excited to do because I have missed it.
“I’m going to work really hard but my main goal is just to enjoy it. The biggest tragedy of my first 23-year stint is that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I should have.
“So I think dropping off, although it was a disaster at the time, it might work out to be a good thing, but you never know.
“My main goal is to enjoy it and to play like I can and if I can do that I have got a chance against anyone.”
The run for Davies, meanwhile, takes the young Welshman into the top 17 on the Q Tour rankings and into seventh place.
That is important because the 16 players after Holt in the order of merit will enter a global playoff tournament, where they will challenge for an additional three WST cards.
Q Tour Event 7, which is the last event on the UK/Europe swing before the playoff event, takes place in Leeds next month.
Q Tour Event 6
Selected Results
Quarter-Finals
Harvey Chandler 4-2 Duane Jones
Alfie Davies 4-0 Liam Davies
Michael Holt 4-1 Chang Yu Kiu
Matthew Glasby 4-3 Steven Hallworth
Semi-Finals
Alfie Davies 4-1 Harvey Chandler
Michael Holt 4-2 Matthew Glasby
Final
Michael Holt 5-4 Alfie Davies
Featured photo credit: WPBSA
Photographer: Andy Chubb
Holt made five centuries in the 18 frames he won. His scoring power generally outstrips any of the other ex pros battling away on Q Tour.
Great to see him back. Looking forward to cheering for him next year