Dean Young

Dean Young (born 7 January 2002) is a Scottish former professional snooker player.

Early life He is from Edinburgh, Scotland, and attended Firrhill High School. He began playing snooker at the age of seven years-old. He is based at the Locarno Snooker Club in Edinburgh.

Career He won the U-21 Scotland National Snooker Championship in 2018 and 2019 defeating Aaron Graham on both occasions. In June 2021, Young came through event 3 of the 2021 Q School defeating Florian Nüßle and Mitchell Mann amongst others, before beating Haydon Pinhey 4–1 in the final round to earn a two-year card on the World Snooker Tour for the 2021–2022 and 2022–2023 seasons. He was the only rookie from that year's Q-School. He reached round four (round-of-16) at the 2022 Snooker Shoot Out.

After completing two years on the tour, he qualified for a two-year card again in June 2023, at Q School. He described the completion of his first two years as his “apprenticeship”.

He started the 2023-24 season in July 2023 at the 2023 Championship League held at the Morningside Arena in Leicester, England. In the round-robin group stage he earned credible draws against top-50 ranked players Jak Jones and Jamie Jones. In December 2023, he reached the third round of the 2023 Snooker Shoot Out with wins over David Grace and Hong Kong teenager Shaun Liu, before losing to two-time former World Championship runner-up Ali Carter.

He reached the last-32 of the 2024 Scottish Open in December 2024, held in his home city of Edinburgh. He was drawn against Polish teenager Michal Szubarczyk in the first round of qualifying for the 2025 World Snooker Championship in April 2025, winning 10-8 before facing Stan Moody.

He dropped off the World Snooker Tour after the 2024-25 season. He reached the final round of Q School in May 2025 but was denied an immediate return after a defeat to Fergal Quinn. After his performances at Q School he was ranked seventh in the 2025 Q School Order of Merit.

Entered as a top-up player, Young was drawn in the round-robin stage of the 2025 Championship League against Pang Junxu, Jiang Jun and Oliver Lines, recording a 3-1 win over Jiang Jun. Having entered Q School in May 2026, Young reached the final round of event one before losing 4–2 to fellow former-professional Liam Davies.

Competing in the 2026 Championship League in June, Young topped his round-robin group, going undefeated against Reanne Evans, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Louis Heathcote. In the second phase the following month, he again went unbeaten, drawing against Xu Si, Jackson Page and Elliot Slessor, with Slessor topping the group with two wins.

Performance and rankings timeline Tournament 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 2024/25 2025/26Ranking 88 90