It's only two years since David Grace last played at the Crucible, and only five since he reached the semi-finals of the Northern Ireland Open. But after a disappointing couple of seasons, the Yorkshireman has been relegated from the tour and is now preparing for what he describes as the "cauldron" of Q School for the first time since 2018.
Grace was one of the very first graduates from Q School when the event was first staged back in 2011 - he beat Zhang Anda in the final round of event one. Seven years later he headed for Q School again and this time was unsuccessful, though in 2019 he regained his card via the Challenge Tour. He kept his status for six seasons, but now faces the trip to the Mattioli Arena in Leicester with 170 other players, all battling for eight tour cards.
"In a weird way I am looking forward to it because usually there is a break of a few weeks at this time of year, so it feels good to have a tournament to play in," said Grace, who turned 40 last week. "I seem to be more positive about it than most players. For the last few years I have watched it from afar and I know it tends to be the more experienced players, often the ones who have just been relegated, who get through. Hopefully I am in that category, though I know there are only eight tour places available and more than eight good players in it. From the second round onwards you are going to be up against strong opponents."
Grace's finest moment came at his home tournament, the UK Championship in York, in 2015 when he reached the semi-finals before losing 6-4 to Liang Wenbo. In 2020 he enjoyed another appearance in the last four of a televised ranking event, this time in Belfast. He also played at the Crucible in 2017 and 2023 and has been ranked as high as 44th in the world. But wins were hard to come by for Grace in 2024/25, and he ended the season with first round defeats in the BetVictor Welsh Open, World Open and then a narrow 10-9 reverse against Sunny Akani in his opening qualifying match in the Halo World Championship.
"I don't feel as if my level dropped that much," said Grace. "At the start of last season I lost my first match in the Xi'an Grand Prix and Saudi Arabia Masters, and then never pulled myself out of trouble. Because of my ranking position, I was getting tough draws in the second or third round of events, I drew Kyren Wilson in three tournaments and Judd Trump in another and those are tough matches for anyone. But there are no excuses because I know I wasn't good enough to beat the higher ranked players.
"Usually I'm one to follow the rankings closely and work out what I need to do, but this time it was obvious from early in 2025 that I was going to need to qualify for the Crucible to keep my card. From 6-1 down against Sunny I played great to go 9-7 ahead, but then credit to him because he made a couple of good breaks to go 9-9 and then got the better of me in the decider."
Grace has played snooker for most of his life and, when he's not potting balls, he spends much of his time working at the renowned Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds, looking after the tables and helping to run pro-am events. He has lost none of his enthusiasm for the sport and remains optimistic about his future on the baize.
"I definitely don't feel I am finished as a player and that's not going to change, even if I don't make it through Q School," he added. "I feel I should be ranked in the top 64 and that's where I have been for most of the last ten years. When I have had deep runs in ranking events, that's what really excites me. Even that match against Sunny, the feeling was different class, I loved playing in that match. So if I stopped playing snooker, what else would I do? It's still the thing I am best at.
"And working at the Northern is very rewarding. It's a fantastic club and always busy. People come there from all over the place, the other week we had a minibus load of Brazilian players including Victor Sarkis and Jonas Luz. We are going to stage a WDBS event for the first time because we now have the right facilities for disabled players. It's great to see the club going from strength to strength."
Watch 2025 Q School live and free on WST Play, starting on May 21st, for details click here.
