QUALIFYING action, including two rounds of the BetVictor Northern Ireland Open, begins a hectic September on the World Snooker Tour, with big pots then up for grabs at the BetVictor English Open and British Open later in the month.
The battle for places at the final stages of the Xi’an Grand Prix (October 7-13) began in Leicester on Monday and continues until Wednesday.
Mark Allen, whose run to the semi-finals in Wuhan last week has helped him back into the world’s top 10, beat Mitchell Mann 5-4 on Monday evening, winning the decider with a break of 73.
Allen opened with a break of 79, but the Englishman responded with a run of 91, only to fall behind again to a 54 from Allen.
It was level again after Mann won frame four on the black, but Allen moved two ahead for the first time at 4-2, winning frame five before responding to a 52 break from Mann with a 66 clearance to the pink in frame six.
Runs of 72 and 79 from Mann forced the Antrim man to dig deep, but he was up to the task, compiling a match-winning break off a middle-distance red in frame nine.
Coalisland rookie Fergal Quinn was a 5-1 loser to Robbie Williams in the afternoon sesson.
On Tuesday, Antrim’s Jordan Brown takes on England’s Oliver Brown (7pm), while on Wednesday, Cork’s Aaron Hill, who reached the last 16 in Wuhan, plays Liu Wenwei of China (10am).
Brown’s club-mate Robbie McGuigan faces Scotland’s Scott Donaldson (2.30pm), the same time as the game between Ken Doherty and Daniel Wells.
Meanwhile, 32 players will emerge from BetVictor Northern Ireland Open action to join the world’s top 32 at the Waterfront in Belfast between October 19 and 26.
In round one, Ken Doherty is first into the action, at 10am on Thursday, against Yao Pengcheng of China, with the winner taking on Oliver Lines in round two.
Carrickfergus-based amateur Zak Sheldon is one of two wildcards representing the game’s amateur governing body NIBSA and he faces Poland’s Antoni Kowalski at 1pm on Thursday.
Later the same day (4pm), the second NIBSA wildcard, Northern Ireland U21 champion Joel Connolly from Belfast, takes on Sam Craigie, with Martin O’Donnell lying in wait in round two.
Friday (4pm) has thrown up an interesting all-Irish encounter between Antrim’s Robbie McGuigan and Fergal Quinn. A clash with Zak Surety is the reward for the winner of that one.
Cork’s Leone Crowley plays later that evening, against Hungarian teenager Bulcsu Revesz, with England’s David Lilley awaiting the winner.
In round two, on Sunday evening, Aaron Hill will face Liu Wenwei again if the Chinese player beats his compatriot Gao Yang, while Jordan Brown takes on the winner of the round-one contest between England’s Mitchell Mann and Germany’s Umut Dikme.
{“@context”:”https://schema.org”,”@type”:”NewsArticle”,”headline”:”Mark Allen scrapes home in Xiu2019an Grand Prix qualifier as busy September on World Snooker Tour cues off”,”url”:”https://www.irishnews.com/sport/snooker/mark-allen-scrapes-home-in-xian-grand-prix-qualifier-as-busy-september-on-world-snooker-tour-cues-off-MBBYLIZMDFAMLOA24IEIKTCDU4/”,”datePublished”:”2025-09-01T21:19:30+00:00″,”dateModified”:”2025-09-01T21:24:00+00:00″,”publisher”:{“@type”:”Organization”,”name”:”Carrickfergus Info”,”url”:”https://carrickfergus.info”}}
