Eurosport - Thu, 18 Jun 17:37:00 2009
World Snooker has handed Ian Preece, Andrew Norman, David Gray and Joe Jogia wild card places onto the pro tour for the 2009/2010 season.
Preece, Norman and Gray were awarded their places for being the best placed players on the one year ranking list not to have qualified for the tour while Jogia was rewarded for finishing top of the PIOS standings.
Leicester potter Jogia would normally have been guaranteed a spot due to finishing in the top eight of the PIOS but could not take up his position via that route as he was not a member of his national association which was a PIOS requirement for taking a tour spot.
His wild card means that there is also a place on tour for Chris Norbury who finished ninth in the PIOS standings.
Gray (pictured) had risked being the highest profile player to drop off the tour. A former ranking event winner (2003 Scottish Open) the Englishman had once been ranked as high as 12th in the world.
There is traditionally only one wild card awarded by the sports governing body but three extra places became available this year due to European U19 champion Luca Brecel being too young to take his place; Oceania champion Glen Wilkinson declining his nomination; and the World U21 championships not taking place.
The 96 players who will compete on the main tour next year are:
Ronnie O'Sullivan
Stephen Maguire
Shaun Murphy
John Higgins
Allister Carter
Ryan Day
Mark Selby
Marco Fu
Neil Robertson
Stephen Hendry
Mark Allen
Joe Perry
Ding Junhui
Peter Ebdon
Mark Williams
Mark King
Barry Hawkins
Jamie Cope
Dave Harold
Ricky Walden
Stuart Bingham
Joe Swail
Steve Davis
Michael Holt
Stephen Lee
Matthew Stevens
Liang Wenbo
Graeme Dott
Nigel Bond
Judd Trump
Fergal O'Brien
Gerard Greene
Anthony Hamilton
Dominic Dale
Ian McCulloch
Michael Judge
Stuart Pettman
Mike Dunn
Rory McLeod
Jamie Burnett
Alan McManus
Adrian Gunnell
Andrew Higginson
Ken Doherty
Marcus Campbell
Martin Gould
Mark Davis
Jimmy Michie
Tom Ford
Andy Hicks
David Brown Gilbert
Barry Pinches
John Parrott
Paul Davies
Robert Milkins
Jimmy White
Mark Joyce
David Morris
Liu Song
Jin Long
Rod Lawler
David Roe
Joe Delaney
Peter Lines
Matthew Selt
Matthew Couch
Lee Spick
Daniel Wells
Li Hang
Simon Bedford
Patrick Wallace
Atthasit Mahitthi
Xiao Guodong
Lee Page
Bjorn Haneever
Stephen Rowlings
Ben Woollaston
Noppadol Sangnil
Craig Steadman
Chris Norbury
Thepchaiya Un Nooh
Tony Drago
David Hogan
Jimmy Robertson
Sam Baird
Jordan Brown
James Wattana
Mei Xiwen
Zhang Anda
Mark Boyle
Michael White
Brendan O'Donoghue
Ian Preece
Andrew Norman
David Gray
Joe Jogia
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Comment 1 - 2 of 2
give jimmy white wild card for every competetion my hero
should give the wild card to tony drago and jimmy white you need them to bright up snooker because has become boring from alberto tooting
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