It is certainly a shame that there are so few entrants, but at least those that do go are guaranteed a pay-out, even if it doesn’t cover the cost. To me, an amateur event like this shouldn’t be about winning money – it’s more about trying to get yourself into a position, i.e. the main tour, to start earning what could be a very nice living.
The winners of the first two events, Brandon Sargeant and David Grace will be there and looking to push on in their quest to be one of the top two in the order of merit after the ten events and earn that tour card as a reward. We might not be able to watch them on live streaming or follow by way of live scoring, but the results do come through pretty quickly – I use Snooker.org or FlashScore on my iPhone and on Twitter @WSResults is pretty good.
This event is taking place alongside the Riga Masters where three amateurs lined up against the pros as a reward for their efforts in the first qualifying round back in Preston.
David Lilley unfortunately ran up against an in form Shaun Murphy who in the first frame missed a straightforward yellow on 120 when a max was on.
https://twitter.com/dlilley2011/status/1022816592567132161
Luke Simmonds was paired against Kyren Wilson, a potential winner of this event, and went down to the same 4-0 scoreline.
Simon Bedford however return the favour for the amateurs and whitewashed Niu Zhuang of China and will now try to avenge Luke when taking on Kyren Wilson later today.
Two of the rookie pros, Ashley Carty and Joe O’Connor are enjoying their first trip abroad on the main tour. Ashley had a very notable result by beating Anthony McGill 4-2. Joe, the current English Amateur Champion, booked his place in Round 2 with a 4-1 win over Lee Walker.
It looks like it’s going to be an interesting weekend in Latvia.
