Northern Ireland Open: qualifiers draw and schedule

Next up on the 2023/24 snooker calendar is the Northern Ireland Open qualifiers at Ponds Forge in Sheffield.

The last three weeks have been full of ranking event action in what has been a busy period on the schedule.

Mark Williams won the British Open at the start of the month before Judd Trump’s back-to-back double in the English and Wuhan Opens.

This week, it’s back to the cubicles and the preliminary phase for next week’s Northern Ireland Open in Belfast.

As usual with the Home Nations tournaments, the top 16 seeds have had their round-of-128 encounters held over to the main show at the Waterfront Hall.

That, of course, does not include the Macau Five – specifically world champion Luca Brecel, Mark Selby, John Higgins, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, and Wuhan runner-up Ali Carter.

The quintet had been due to play in an event in Macau on the same dates, and even though that has been postponed, it’s too late for entry into this tournament.

Ding Junhui is another notable absentee from the Northern Ireland Open draw.

It’s a peculiar decision for Ding given how he’s only just inside the top-16 cut-off point in the respective UK Championship (automatic qualification) and Masters (invitation) ranking races.

Among the high-profile players competing from Tuesday to Friday in the Northern Ireland Open qualifiers, meanwhile, are Stuart Bingham and Stephen Maguire.

Legends Stephen Hendry, Jimmy White, and Ken Doherty are going to attempt to book their spots in Belfast as well.

There are several intriguing ties, including World Championship semi-finalist Si Jiahui’s bout with recent English Open runner-up Zhang Anda.

Matches will the best-of-seven frames with live coverage available on discovery+ in Europe and Matchroom.Live in other territories (other than China).

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Northern Ireland Open qualifiers

*schedule subject to change*

Northern Ireland Open qualifying results

Tuesday, October 17th

Results
Fan Zhengyi 4-2 Liu Hongyu
Long Zehuang 1-4 Anton Kazakov
Andy Hicks 2-4 Jiang Jun
Allan Taylor 1-4 Dominic Dale
Alfie Burden 4-3 Mostafa Dorgham
Reanne Evans 0-4 Hammad Miah
Liam Graham 0-4 Jackson Page
Andrew Higginson 2-4 Sean O’Sullivan
Andrew Pagett 3-4 Lukas Kleckers
Dylan Emery 4-3 Martin Gould
Joe O’Connor 2-4 Zak Surety
Rod Lawler 4-0 Baipat Siripaporn

Wednesday, October 18th

Results
Mohamed Ibrahim 2-4 Dean Young
Scott Donaldson 0-4 Mark Davis
Victor Sarkis 2-4 Ross Muir
Jamie Clarke 4-3 Alfie Davies
Liam Highfield 3-4 Ken Doherty
James Cahill 4-1 Duane Jones
Jordan Brown 4-2 Stuart Carrington
Adam Duffy 1-4 Julien Leclercq
Liam Pullen 1-4 Robbie Williams
Chris Wakelin 4-0 Anthony Hamilton
Manasawin Phetmalaikul 3-4 Barry Pinches
Matthew Stevens 4-2 Stephen Hendry

Thursday, October 19th

Results
David Grace 0-4 Xing Zihao
Xu Si 4-2 Alexander Ursenbacher
Xiao Guodong 1-4 Yuan Sijun
Marco Fu 4-2 Jamie Jones
Pang Junxu 2-4 Ian Burns
Noppon Saengkham 4-0 Himanshu Jain
Matthew Selt 4-1 Andy Lee
David Lilley 1-4 Aaron Hill
Jimmy Robertson 4-2 Sydney Wilson
Graeme Dott 4-0 Oliver Lines
Martin O’Donnell 4-3 Daniel Wells
Joe Perry 4-2 Ishpreet Singh Chadha

Friday, October 20th

Results
Zhou Yuelong 2-4 Stan Moody
Mink Nutcharut 2-4 Michael White
Peng Yisong 4-1 He Guoqiang
Stephen Maguire 4-3 Fergal O’Brien
Si Jiahui 1-4 Zhang Anda
Lyu Haotian 4-1 Ashley Carty
Andres Petrov 4-3 Sanderson Lam
Stuart Bingham 4-3 Ashley Hugill
John Astley 0-4 Thor Chuan Leong
Jak Jones 4-0 Oliver Brown

Held over fixtures

(to be played at the venue)

Sunday, October 22nd

Results
Robert Milkins 3-4 Cao Yupeng
Ryan Day 3-4 Ma Hailong
Neil Robertson 4-1 Wu Yize
Ricky Walden 4-2 Ben Woollaston
Judd Trump 4-1 Jenson Kendrick
Kyren Wilson 3-4 Sam Craigie
Jack Lisowski 4-1 Rebeccan Kenna
Robbie McGuigan 4-1 Muhammad Asif
Mark Williams 4-1 Tian Pengfei
Mark Allen 4-0 Ben Mertens
Shaun Murphy 4-2 Ryan Thomerson
David Gilbert 4-1 Joel Connolly
Gary Wilson 4-3 Louis Heathcote
Anthony McGill 4-3 Jimmy White
Rory McLeod 4-0 Ahmed Aly Elsayed

Monday, October 23rd

Results
Hossein Vafaei 4-1 Mark Joyce
Barry Hawkins 4-1 Elliot Slessor
Tom Ford 4-0 Haydon Pinhey

Featured photo credit: WST