2024 English Open – Day2

Monique Professional snooker tournament, Snooker

This is WST report on day 2 at the 2024 English Open in Brentwood:

BETVICTOR ENGLISH OPEN FRIDAY ROUNDUP

Essex cueman Zak Surety secured a big win on home soil to secure passage through to the TV stages of the BetVictor English Open in Brentwood, beating Elliot Slessor 4-1 in the second round. 

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World number 98 Surety will now face Thailand’s Noppon Saengkham in the last 64. Today’s match saw Surety fire in runs of 52 and 128 on his way to victory.

China’s Fan Zhengyi provided the highlight of the day, crafting a magnificent 147 break to get over the line with a 4-2 win over Liam Pullen. The former European Masters winner now faces Ryan Day. 

Ireland’s Aaron Hill was a 4-2 victor against Lei Peifan, while Oliver Lines scored a 4-1 win over Scott Donaldson. They now face Mark Selby and Robert Milkins respectively. 

How they dare to call this a “round-up” I’m not sure. Mind you, yesterday nineteen matches (19) were played, their report only covers four of them (4) and I suspect that Fan Zhengyi’s match is in there only because of the 147. What surprises me is that even Jimmy White’s win over Josuah Cooper isn’t mentioned although the end of that match is on their YouTube channel1

Anyway… all results are on snooker.org.

Other than Jimmy White’s win, here are the other results I believe need mentioning:

  • There was another heartbreak for Iulian Boiko as he was beaten by Louis Heathcote, by 4-3. Iulian was 3-2 up in that match but Louis was the heavier scorer overall.
  • Mostafa Dorgham from Egypt beat Alan “Pretzel” Taylor. Mostafa is a very decent player and if he could do well on tour it would be a boost for African snooker.
  • Cheung Ka Wai who is on tour via the WSF route beat Stan Moody rather convincingly. I’m not sure that all the focus Stan got was justified, nor that it helped him develop. That said Cheung comes across as intelligent around the table and a “shot maker”. I like his game.
  • Ben Woollaston also won his match yesterday. He recently mentioned that he was gradually feeling better and is able to practice again. It shows in his results and I’m happy that his career seems to be getting back on tracks. He’s a very good player and a lovely person.
  • Aaron Hill beat Lei Peifan by 4-2. This match had a break over 50 in every frame played!

Here is Fan’s 147

What away to finish a match! And as you can see … not may watching in Brentwood …

  1. For some reason, in recent times, WST Youtube videos don’t embed properly here. The other sources do work… any clue anyone? ↩︎

2 thoughts on “2024 English Open – Day2”

  1. I was lucky enough to be in Brentwood yesterday, which is close to where I live (after a day’s work which began at 2am!). I saw many fine performances by promising players, including Fan’s 147. Fan was 2-0 down against Liam Cullen, but came back very strongly.

    There were about 10 people watching Table 2, plus a similar number on Table 1. That’s pretty poor considering the £12 all-day ticket, but possibly the out-of-town location (plus basic facilities) makes it not very attractive.

    • Yes, the crowds were very “thin” and the venue being out of town was almost certainly a factor. As it was also probably in Riyadh BTW. The level of the younger players has certainly risen, and the “European” ones are certainly not worse than the UK ones despite facing more “obstacles” because of the UK centric organisation of the tour.

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