The Northern Ireland Open continues apace on Thursday when two rounds of action in the competition takes place. 32 players will set out on the day’s play and at the end of it only eight will remain as the last 32 and the last 16 take place in the Waterfront Hall in Belfast.
The last 32 is played out in the morning and the afternoon session with the last 16 in the evening session. Some big names remain in the competition so we should be set for a decent day of snooker. As ever in snooker tournaments these days there is a round which time restrictions will deny us the opportunity of previewing. That is the last 16 here but we can cover the last 32.
[the_ad id=”16644″]
Morning Session
Neil Robertson is on one of the main tables in the morning session on Thursday. He takes on Robert Milkins while on the other table Mark King continues his title defence against Yan Bingtao. The outside tables are full in this session too. Ryan Day takes on Robin Hull while Ricky Walden faces Jimmy Robertson. Lu Haotian meets Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Mike Dunn plays Michael Holt. Potentially the most interesting match in the session sees Xiao Guodong taking on Joe Perry.
Afternoon Session
The first match on the TV table in the afternoon session sees Ronnie O’Sullivan looking to take another step closer to the £1m bounty when he takes on Elliot Slessor while the steamed table will see Mark Williams going up against Akani Songsermsawad. On the outside tables Tian Pengfei will meet Noppon Saengkham while Ken Doherty will play Liam Highfield. Anthony McGill will meet Li Yuan and Mei Xiwen will play Sam Craigie. Dave Gilbert takes on Ross Muir in the other match.
The second set of matches on the main tables sees John Higgins taking on Gary Wilson on the main TV table while fans of Jimmy White will be able to watch him in action against Chris Wakelin on the streamed offering.
[the_ad_group id=”3624″]
Betting
I’m going with two more bets in this round of matches. Sam Craigie has been good to me in the tournament already having taken him on Wednesday and I’m going with him again on Thursday. He takes on a Mei Xiwen who has done well to get this far but who is not one of the stronger Chinese players on the circuit. Craigie has been scoring very well in this tournament and that is a big thing in these best of sevens. I think he’ll have enough to come through.
Liam Highfield is another player who is going well this week. He has beaten Mark Davis and Liang Wenbo already and now faces Ken Doherty who is a level down on those opponents. Doherty has done well to progress this far but I think his run ends here. Highfield has won their first two meetings and given how well he is playing I think he’ll make it three in a row between the two.
Tips
WON – Back S.Craigie to beat M.Xiwen for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Betfred
Back him here:
WON – Back L.Highfield to beat K.Doherty for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Betfair
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2017
