Mark Davis will attempt to regain his place on the World Snooker Tour after losing his professional status following a key qualifying match. The 53-year-old Sussex native, who turned professional in 1991, was defeated 10-6 by China’s Gao Yang in last month’s World Championship qualifying round. This loss dropped Davis to 66th in the world rankings, putting him below the threshold required to maintain his tour card.

To secure his spot for the upcoming season, Davis must now navigate Q School, the qualifying tournament for players seeking to join or rejoin the professional tour. His campaign begins this afternoon with a match against Welsh player Oliver Briffett-Payne.

Davis’s efforts to remain on the professional circuit continue a remarkable century-long legacy of players bearing the Davis name at the highest levels of snooker. This lineage began with Joe Davis, who dominated the sport from 1927, the year the first World Snooker Championship was held. Fred Davis, Joe’s brother, sustained the family’s presence in professional snooker from 1929 until 1993. More recently, Steve Davis, a six-time world champion, competed at the Crucible Theatre in the World Championship as recently as 2010 at the age of 52, overlapping with Mark Davis.

As Mark Davis embarks on his Q School campaign, he aims not only to reclaim his tour status but also to uphold the longstanding Davis family tradition in professional snooker.