One set of “qualifiers” just finished and the next one immediately got underway….

Indeed the 2024 British Open round 1 started yesterday in Leicester. Here is the report by WST:

Thailand’s Thepchaiya Un-Nooh took under an hour to blitz his way to a 4-1 win over Switzerland’s Alexander Ursenbacher at Unibet British Open qualifying in Leicester. 

The quickfire cueman averaged just 16 seconds a shot, as he fired in runs of 54, 88, 63 and 80 en route to victory and a place in the final stages in Cheltenham. 

World number 61 David Grace scored a surprise 4-2 win over Jack Lisowski to deny the Gloucestershire potter a spot in his home event. Yorkshireman Grace top scored with 101 and added a further two half centuries during the win. 

Returning professional Michael Holt scored a 4-0 whitewash win over 12-time Women’s World Champion Reanne Evans, while former Crucible semi-finalist Si Jiahui beat 2021 World Seniors Champion David Lilley 4-2. 

…

As usual, it only covers a fraction of the matches that took place. You will find all the results on snooker.org.

Theppy played very well indeed, as did David Grace who had three breaks over 50, including a 101, in beating Jack Lisowski. Jack simply makes too many mistakes and, because he plays such an open game, they usually cost him.

Now about the matches that WST omitted in their report …

• Alan “Pretzel” Taylor beat the 18 years old Artemijs Zizins from Latvia by 4-3 from 3-1 down. Now young Artemijs is certainly one to watch this season. He plays a mature game and he absolutely hates losing. His face when leaving the arena was telling. Don’t expect fake graciousness from this young man. He was disgusted and angry and it showed! As for Alan … I don’t think there is a single person on tour who hates him. He’s fun to be around and his impressions of other players are famous, hilarious… and accurate 😂
• Iulian Boiko beat the experienced Farak Ajaib by 4-2. I’m sure that this result pleased many. Iulian needed a win and this is a good one not only because it put and end to a series of close defeats but also because after leading by 3-0 and being pegged back 3-2, Iulian kept his composure and played a very good, mature, last frame to take the match.
• There was another good win for “Dark Mavis”. This time it’s young Robbie McGuigan who was at the receiving end of a ruthless display by the dark one… he was beaten 4-0 and scored a grand total of 63 points in the match.

I can’t really comment on the other matches, I saw nothing of what happened at the table, but it seems that Michael Holt is in great shape. He had three breaks over 50 in beating Reanne Evans by 4-0. Reanne scored 27 points in total. Ouch!

WST also announced the Unibet will be the sponsor of the (main) event