2024 Northern Ireland Open – Day 4

Here are the reports by WST on what happened yesterday in Belfast:

BETVICTOR NORTHERN IRELAND OPEN DAY FOUR AFTERNOON

Oliver Lines cited the power of positive thinking as the reason for his improvement this season as he knocked home favourite Mark Allen out of the BetVictor Northern Ireland Open with a 4-3 victory at the last 32 stage.

Allen’s fans in Belfast had hoped their man could go all the way to the title this week, as he did in 2021 and 2022, but the Antrim cueman was well below his best today as world number 83 Lines registered one of the biggest wins of his career so far. The Leeds potter will meet Neil Robertson or Wang Yuchen next.

Lines, age 29, first turned professional ten years ago and reached his first ranking event semi-final last month at the British Open. “I’m not beating myself up as much if I miss a ball,” he said after today’s win. “And I’m not thinking negatively. In the last frame today I missed a chance but I told myself to keep calm because I might get another opportunity. As long as I think the right way, things seem to be happening for me. You can start doubting shots and looking for problems that aren’t there. I was nervous towards the end of the match but I had to convince myself that I still felt good.

“I have worked harder in general this season, concentrating more in practice, and it seems to be paying off at the moment. It’s a big win for me because Mark is a top player and it’s his home tournament.“

Lines took the opening frame with a 31 clearance before world number three Allen levelled with a break of 87. Lines regained the lead with a 73 before Allen took two scrappy frames to lead 3-2. A run of 53 helped Lines level at 3-3, and he led 30-0 in the decider when he missed the blue off its spot. Allen had a clear scoring chance but took just one red before failing to pot the pink to a centre pocket, and Lines added 26 which proved enough.

Allen said: “It was a poor performance and Oli deserved to win. I felt edgy today and I’m not sure why. I had more than enough chances but I wasn’t good enough.”

Evening session

BETVICTOR NORTHERN IRELAND OPEN DAY FOUR EVENING

Stan Moody continued to build his reputation as one of snooker’s best up-and-coming talents as he thrashed Crucible finalist Jak Jones 4-0 to set up a clash with Kyren Wilson at the BetVictor Northern Ireland Open.

Moody is through to the last 16 of a ranking event for the third time in his short career and will meet World Champion Wilson in an intriguing clash in Belfast on Thursday evening. Victory would give 18-year-old Moody his first quarter-final.

During a tough rookie season in 2023/24, the teenager won only eight matches, but Moody has clearly improved this term and has 12 victories under his belt already, beating the likes of Zhang Anda, Tom Ford, Ryan Day and now Jones.

“I wasn’t ready to beat the better players last season, I needed to change my game,” said Yorkshire’s Moody, who fired breaks of 92 and 103 tonight. “That’s what I have worked on, and it has paid off. I have always known that I could play to this level and I am doing it more this season. I am playing the right shots at the right time. Last season I was going for one too many, so I have had to reign it in a bit, while also keeping my natural attacking side.

“I have changed my diet completely and done some fitness work. I feel a lot better for it and that’s another reason I’m doing well. I grew up wanting to have the chance to compete against the best players on the TV table, showing what I can do and hopefully winning.“

Wilson edged out Anthony McGill 4-3 in a battle which had echoes of their epic 2020 Crucible semi-final, which the Englishman won 17-16. He is chasing a second title of the season having landed the Xi’an Grand Prix in August.

World number two Wilson took the opening frame tonight with a break of 77 then McGill hit back with 112 and 131 to lead 2-1. The Scot’s momentum was stopped in frame four when he went into the pack on 50 and was unlucky to see a red drop in. Wilson cleared with 62, then his break of 70 in frame five put him 3-2 ahead. In the sixth, Wilson looked set for victory until he missed the last red to a top corner at 40-37, and his opponent punished him to set up the decider.

Both players had chances and it came down to the colours, McGill making two mistakes on the green which cost him. First he went in-off, and later knocked the green on to the black which dropped into a corner pocket, ending his hopes.

“I don’t know what it is when we play each other!” said a relieved Wilson. “When we got down to the green, I said to him ‘I’m not sure I’m ready for this again’ and he said ‘just don’t fluke it this time!’ I played some good stuff earlier in the match and hopefully I can show more of that tomorrow.“

Neil Robertson, front-runner for the £150,000 BetVictor Home Nations Series bonus, needed just 56 minutes to beat Wang Yuchen 4-0 with a top break of 100. Mark Williams’ 4-1 win over Noppon Saengkham was highlighted by a 143 total clearance in the third frame, the highest break of the tournament so far.

All the results are available on snooker.org

I find it extremely strange¹ that WST report on the afternoon session is about one match only. How come?

That afternoon …

Pang Junxu beat Luca Brecel by 4-1. Pang played well, he won the first three frames with breaks of 63, 71 and 118. All the same, Luca’s approach to the game, to his sport, his job, is baffling and obviously wrong. He says that he wants to be “ironman”… maybe he will have full time for it if he drops off the tour which would be baffling but is entirely possible. Luca is currently ranked number 6, but down to 56 in the provisional end of season ranking list and he hasn’t qualified for the International Championship.

Lei Peifan beat Tom Ford by 4-1 with breaks of 115, 56 and 63. Tom is clearly struggling this season.

Elliot Slessor beat Long Zhehuang by 4-2 in what appears to have been a quality match. They had one century each. Slessor is a bit of a mystery to me. When playing well he’s really, really good but at times, too often really, he allows frustration to get the better of him. I didn’t watch the match but, obviously, this wasn’t the case yesterday.

Martin O’Donnell put an end to Jimmy White’s run in the tournament. This must have been a difficult match for both of them. Jimmy is 62, he turned pro 44 years ago, he still loves the game with a passion, he still can play very well in patches but maybe he doesn’t have the stamina to sustain a high level match after match. He’s well loved, many took on the game because of him, and, probably Martin had to remind himself that he’s there to do a job … and he did just that. But Jimmy should be proud of himself.

In the evening, I watched Neil Robertson vs Wang Yuchen. Neil played really, really well. It was scary at times. Wang never really got “in the match”, he wasn’t allowed to. If Neil keeps this level he should win the tournament. IF.