By Elliott West
Introduction
As the British Open-ended, so the doors to the Morningside Arena in Leicester were reopened this week for a set of intense qualifying matches to see who would progress to play in the Northern Ireland Open, the next tournament in October. The tournament has an attractive total prize fund of £405,000 and a winner’s share of £70,000 with Judd Trump, the current holder of the trophy after defeating Ronnie O’Sullivan 9-7 in the final last year.
This year, the tournament moves back to its rightful place of the Waterfront Hall in Belfast but before it can be played, the other competitors need to be chosen in a maize of qualifying booths in Leicester. The starting gun to this snooker marathon has now been fired and has produced some interesting results so far. Each player has to win one qualifying round to secure their place in the main event.
Sink or Swim?
Having already played three of the qualifiers, we can now gauge a layout of the land after the dust has settled. The higher ranked players have remained unscathed with good results from Mark King who defeated Li Hang 4-2 and Robert Milkins whitewashed Nigel Bond 4-0. Also making it through are the likes of Sunny Akani, Fergal O’Brien, Alfie Burden, Ryan Day, Peter Devlin, Tom Ford, Oliver Lines, Hammad Miah, Jamie O’Neil, Tian Pengfei, Jackson Page, Noppon Saengkham, Matthew Stevens, Allan Taylor, Ben Wollaston, Cao Yupeng.
However alongside victories, there always has to be defeats and sadly this time Scot Donaldson, Gerard Greene, Michael Holt, Jamie Jones, Michael Judge, Michael Georgiou, Igor Figueiredo, Lukas Kleckers, Joe Perry and Alexander Ursenbacher haven’t been so lucky but hopefully, they will fair better in the English Open and Scottish Open qualifiers.
Ruthless and Cruel
Unfortunately, the qualifiers will never produce total winners and in order for people to win, others have to bow out in defeat. Snooker can be a cruel game and is judged on how you play on the day, not on how you have been playing. The slightest mistake makes in a qualifying booth, is amplified, making your opponent smell blood and you, as a player goes through a telephone directory of emotions before the final ball is potted by you or your opponent.
The ladder to success is a long one but the first rungs are qualifiers and the higher you get up, the less you will have frequent the booths. The aim and goal are to eventually join the top 16 and not have to endure that process again. Perhaps a long term project but one that is highly possible in snooker.
