OPINION: Teens Scott Donaldson and Joel Walker Impressing on Second Tour Season

Scott Donaldson during his impressive win over top 16
player Robert Milkins in the Welsh open First Round
last week. Image: World Snooker

Every year, there are 20 or so new faces breaking onto the professional snooker circuit but two young players I’ve been particularly impressed by this season are Scott Donaldson and Joel Walker.

A lot of these fresh faces players are made to look distinctly average and many struggle to compete with the game’s more established stars and all so quickly fall off the tour, but these two have a certain spark and I expect to see them on the circuit for a number of years to come.

Both players, co-incidentally, have made it through to the last 16 of this week’s Welsh Open, runs that have seen them continued to climb up the ranking and more importantly money lists.

Donaldson has fared slightly better out of the two 21 months into their professional careers and provisionally sits at 67 in the world rankings, with his money list ranking at 63, meaning if he stays there he’s assured of his tour place next season.

Even if he doesn’t finish inside that top 64 bracket, which I strongly believe he will, he’s secured a two-year tour card extension from the European Order of Merit following some strong displays in the European Tour events, including a run to the quarter-finals of the first tournament in Bulgaria.

He’s done even better on the Asian Tour, making the semi-finals of the first tournament back in June, and a run to the fourth round of the third event.

He currently sits joint seventh in the Asian Order of Merit, and has entered the fourth and final Asian Tour event in China which begins next Tuesday. Another good run here will secure his place at the Players Championship finals in Preston in March, which could help him progress yet further up the main ranking lists.

It’s not just the PTC events that the Perth-born 19-year-old has impressed in, with a run to the third round of the Wuxi Classic and a third round appearance in the UK Championship a few months ago in York.

When I spoke to him at the UK Championship back in December, he stated he wished to secure a top 64 spot at the end of the season, understandably so as that’ll mean he keeps his points on the rankings from this season, rather than starting from zero again.

Joel Walker in action in Newport earlier this week.
Image: World Snooker

That’ll definitely be the aim for Sheffield potter Joel Walker too, but he still has a lot of work to do for the remainder of this season as he currently sits at 79 in the money list.

But after failing to qualify for either of the two upcoming ranking events in China, the Haikou World Open and China Open, he needs a very good run in Newport this week, as well as a run to the World Championship in April.

Reaching the Crucible would surely be a dream come true itself for Walker, to play in the game’s most prestigious tournament in his home city of Sheffield.

If he’s not able to stay on the tour via a top 64 place, Walker who’s three days the senior of Donaldson, has the safety net of a place on the European Order of Merit, but will of course have to start from scratch at the start of the 2014/15 season.

It’s been on the European Tour where Walker has thrived this season, especially in the back-to-back events in November.

The first of which, the Kay Suzanne Memorial Trophy held at the SWSA in Gloucester, saw him reach the last 16 before losing to Mark Allen and then the following weekend, he reached the Quarter-Finals of the Ruhr Open in Germany. He beat a number of established players, including Jamie Cope, Mark King and Kurt Maflin before losing to Ben Woollaston in the last eight, but will deservedly remain on the tour following those two good runs.

Walker first came to the snooker world’s attention in 2010 when he won the Riley’s Future Stars competition, securing coaching sessions with Ronnie O’Sullivan and after a wobbly first season on tour, will undoubtedly be on the scene for a number of years to come.

The pair’s exploits in Newport continue on Thursday in the last 16, with Walker facing the tricky task of playing the defending champion Stephen Maguire, who whitewashed Andrew Pagett yesterday.

Donaldson arguably has a tougher task in stopping the on fire Ding Junhui, with the world number three searching for his fifth ranking title of the season this week.