Antrim’s Jordan Brown ensured that he’ll be among the line-up for next week’s BetVictor Northern Ireland Open in Belfast as he saw off Stuart Carrington 4-2 in the qualifying round.
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Brown goes through to face either Neil Robertson or Wu Yize in the last 64 of the world ranking event at the Waterfront Hall, which runs from October 22 to 29. The former BetVictor Welsh Open champion made a top break of 69 in a hard-fought win over Carrington.
Irishman Ken Doherty earned his spot with a fine 4-3 victory over Liam Highfield. From 3-2 down, former World Champion Doherty, age 54, fired breaks of 135 and 65 to win the last two frames.
Stephen Hendry and Matthew Stevens went head to head in a repeat of their UK Championship final of 20 years ago, and again it was Stevens who came out on top as he recovered a 2-1 deficit to win 4-2.
Jamie Clarke won the deciding frame on the final black to beat Alfie Davis 4-3, while Dean Young top scored with 83 in a 4-2 win over Mohamed Ibrahim.
There was a very good 4-0 win by Mark Davis over Scott Donaldson. Mark opened the match with two big breaks, a 100 and a 86. Not bad for a 51 years old veteran. Scott Donaldson AST was close to 40 seconds/shot. That’s very slow, unusually slow. Scott has been open about healths issues that have hindered him as a player. Maybe yesterday was a bad day for him.
Julien Leclercq beat Adam Duffy by 4-1, from 1-0 down. Julien played well … and fast! His AST was a mere 16 seconds per shot.
Stephen Hendry started the match well, he lead 2-0. This was, by far, the best I have seen him play since his “return”. He should have gone 3-1 really. He was the better player at that stage. The in-off in frame 4 appeared to seriously and durably affect him. He wasn’t the same after that. He looked dispirited and his game disintegrated. Nothing against Matthew Stevens but that was sad to see … again.
Anthony Hamilton scored only 18 points in a 4-0 defeat to Chris Wakelin. Chris was again in high scoring mode … he had breaks of 51, 87 and 95 en route to victory. He’s a different player snce winning the Shoot Out.
Gary Wilson will face close friend Elliot Slessor in the opening round when he begins the defence of his BetVictor Scottish Open title in Edinburgh in December.
The main event will run from December 11 to 17 at the Meadowbank Sports Centre in Edinburgh. …
Wilson won his first ranking title in Edinburgh last year when he beat Joe O’Connor in the final. The Wallsend cueman will be up against practice partner Slessor in a Tyneside tussle in the first round this time.
World Champion Luca Brecel has been drawn against Ukranian ace Iulian Boiko, while world number one Ronnie O’Sullivan will face Glaswegian tour rookie Liam Graham. Scotland’s all-time legend John Higgins will meet Oliver Brown. Matches involving the top 16 seeds and the two Scottish wild cards will all be played in Edinburgh. Those matches are:
Gary Wilson v Elliot Slessor Hossein Vafaei v Daniel Wells Mark Williams v Sam Craigie Kyren Wilson v Mostafa Dorgham Mark Allen v Jamie Jones Jimmy Robertson v Amaan Iqbal (wild card) Robert Milkins v Mark Davis Jack Lisowski v Mohamed Ibrahim Judd Trump v Sydney Wilson Ronnie O’Sullivan v Liam Graham Barry Hawkins v Pang Junxu Ishpreet Singh Chadha v Jack Borwick (wild card) Ali Carter v Long Zehuang Mark Selby v Sean O’Sullivan Shaun Murphy v Liu Hongyu John Higgins v Oliver Brown Ding Junhui v David Grace Luca Brecel v Julian Boiko
All other first round ties will take place at the qualifying round in Leicester from October 30 to November 2, with winners going through to Edinburgh. Notable matches in the qualifiers include:
Perth’s Scott Donaldson v Ashley Hugill Marco Fu v Jimmy White Ken Doherty v Aaron Hill Baipat Siripaporn v Julien Leclercq Glasgow’s Anthony McGill v Ryan Thomerson
In other news …
Regarding the exhibition in Shanghai …
On day 2, Ronnie beat Jack Lisowski by 4-2 , with a 108 in the process, then lost by 4-0 (or 4-1 according to Weibo) to Willo, who, again according to weibo, scored three centuries in that match. Sinosport on twitter wrote that the third day of the exhibition has been cancelled by the organisers, without further explanation. The posts on weibo are stating that “some” of today’s matches were cancelled, not all of them. Matches scheduled for today are/were Chinese pool matches.
These are the matches that are/may be still on:
14:00 Ronnie O’Sullivan vs. Jack Lisowski (game type: Chinese 8-ball) 19:00 Ding Junhui vs. Judd Trump (game type: Chinese 8-ball)
On twitter …
Hector Nunns, who extensively covered the “conflict” between the players involved in the Macau exhibition and WST/ WSL, and had some sympathy for the players, came yesterday on Twitter (yes, I know, it’s X now) to apologise for some of the things he wrote that were “misinformed” and “untrue”. Now, I know Hector personally and I’m puzzled. It’s not like him to publish things without checking his sources. Everybody makes mistakes, of course, and maybe Hector made a mistake this time… but I’m quite uneasy with the way this whole story panned out. And just now … Hector announced that he will stay away from snooker, adding that this decision is unconnected to the recent incident. It’s a big loss for our sport and … As I said already, I can’t help but feel very uneasy with it all.
2 thoughts on “The 2023 NI Open Qualifiers – Day 2 + 2023 Scottish Open Draw and Other News”
So, what’s the deal with Mr. Nunns?
If memory serves, Nunns alleged that WST threatened players merely for not showing up at the NI Open. That seemed clearly false. Players do fail to show up at WST-sponsored tournaments, and I cannot recall any of them being threatened, much less fined or otherwise sanctioned. Usually if such happens, you clarify, correct yourself, apologize to readers, and move on.
Now, occasionally folks do change, prioritize other interests, or choose other venues, and experiences like the one with the reporting about the Macau Five might catalyze such changes. So, there might not be much to Mr. Nunns calling it quits at all.
On the other hand, can you clarify your sense of unease, and did you stumble over (publicly available) information that might clarify what’s going on?
Third day of the exhibition…
Heyball… considering now a very strange moment, it may arise some dispute.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
So, what’s the deal with Mr. Nunns?
If memory serves, Nunns alleged that WST threatened players merely for not showing up at the NI Open. That seemed clearly false. Players do fail to show up at WST-sponsored tournaments, and I cannot recall any of them being threatened, much less fined or otherwise sanctioned. Usually if such happens, you clarify, correct yourself, apologize to readers, and move on.
Now, occasionally folks do change, prioritize other interests, or choose other venues, and experiences like the one with the reporting about the Macau Five might catalyze such changes. So, there might not be much to Mr. Nunns calling it quits at all.
On the other hand, can you clarify your sense of unease, and did you stumble over (publicly available) information that might clarify what’s going on?
Third day of the exhibition…
Heyball… considering now a very strange moment, it may arise some dispute.