Amateurs at the Northern Ireland Open

For the Northern Ireland Open there are now 13 amateurs in the draw

2 late call ups are Dylan Emery, who replaces Anthony Hamilton, and James Cahill, who has replaced Graham Dott.

Cahill has got off to a great start by beating Chang Bingyu [87].

Dylan Emery will face Ali Carter [22] on Tuesday.

The other matches involving amateurs are:

John Astley v Allen Taylor [75]
David Lilley v Fan Zhengyi [85]
Michael Georgiou v Xu Si [115]
Sanderson Lam v Mitchell Mann [93]
Michael White v Luca Brecel [37]
Ross Muir v Elliott Slessor [47]
Soheil Vahedi v Jak Jones [63]
Chris Clifford v Gao Yang [74]
Si Jiahui v Mark Allen [9]
Bai Langning v Shaun Murphy [5]
Robbie McGuigan v Sam Cragie [49]

Chris Clifford and Robbie McGuigan are the NIBSA wildcard entries and the rest are Q School Order of Merit top-ups.

Update 28/08/21

The so-called “qualifiers” for the Northern Ireland Open have finished so let’s have a look at who has made it through to the Waterfront Hall in Belfast, starting on 9 October.

Some of the amateurs have their first round match at the venue on Saturday 9 October

NIBSA wildcards:
Chris Clifford v Gao Yang [Seeded 74]
Robbie McGuigan v Sam Cragie [49]

The amateurs drawn against top 16 seeds:
Si Jiahui v Mark Allen [9]
Bai Langning v Shaun Murphy [5]

The only qualifier by right was James Cahill. Cahill beat Chang Bingyu [87] and missed the 13th black on the way to a maximum in Frame 1. That would certainly have been better than the maximum by John Higgins. Some thought that was the first match of the tournament simply because it was the first on TV!

In the other matches, the results were:

John Astley 2-4 Allen Taylor [75]
David Lilley 2-4 Fan Zhengyi [85]
Michael Georgiou 2-4 Xu Si [115]
Sanderson Lam 1-4 Mitchell Mann [93]
Michael White 0-4 Luca Brecel [37]
Ross Muir 3-4 Elliott Slessor [47]
Soheil Vahedi 2-4 Jak Jones [63]
Dylan Emery 1-4 Ali Carter [22]

Wildcards

For each of the Home Nations events, the relative NGBs are given 2 wildcards. In this case the Northern Ireland Billiards and Snooker Association (NIBSA) have chosen Chris Clifford, the current Norther Ireland Under 21 Champion, and Robbie McGuigan, the current and youngest ever Northern Ireland Amateur Champion.