David Gilbert says he was about to quit before World Snooker Q School 2011
Main tour card holder, David Gilbert revealed that he was considering retirement from the game of snooker before the World Snooker Qualifying School (Q School) 2011 but he reversed his decision after
digging deep for some sort of inspiration which would reignite that spark in him.
The Tamworth cueman, Gilbert, eventually grabbed the pro tour spot after winning the quarter-final clash in the third event of Q School 2011. He made it to the quarter-finals in the previous two events
too but to his misfortune, he crashed out of both.
In his conversation with the local media, Gilbert said, "If the qualifying school was over one long season, like the Challenge Tour as it used to be, then I wouldn't have played, but I thought to
myself it was just three weeks out of my life. I still wasn't going to play in it at all originally but I sat down and realised the game is getting so much bigger and better."
He added "I missed a lot of the Players Tour Championship (PTC) events and put myself in a position to lose my ranking. I didn't realise how important those PTC events are. I'm really pleased to get
back on and I'm going to give it a proper go – I've knocked work on the head and I'm going to play as much as I can."
The 29-year-old Gilbert started Q School with a splendid performance in the first event. He surged to the final stages of the event beating Steve Judd, James Welsh, Martin O'Donnell and Reanne Evans
in the first four rounds respectively, but lost to Robin Hull in the quarter-final by 4-3.
The second event was equally tussling for Gilbert as he had to start his run from the beginning to take the tour card. However, he started strongly with his first-round win over Thepchaiya Un-Nooh,
defeating him 4-0.
He moved ahead into the competition, ousting Craig Steadman, Martin O'Donnell and Stephen Rowlings in the next three games respectively to go head-to-head against Tian Pengfei in the quarter-final.
To his disappointment though, he lost to the Chinese player by a scoreline of 4-2.
The Derby-based cueist didn’t lose hope though and started his quest again in the Q School Event three. This time he made no mistake at all and got the better of Robbie Williams, Bobby Cruickshanks
and Brijesh Damani along with a walkover against Simon Bedford. He took care of Allan Taylor in the quarter-final to finally book his pro tour spot.
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