The second day of qualifying for the Northern Ireland Open takes place inside the Morningside Arena in Leicester on Tuesday as another 20 players look to win the four frames they need to make the main draw later in the season.
The star names have had their qualifying match held over to the main venue but there are still some decent players on show across the day, a day which contains three sessions of action and 10 matches overall.
Morning Session
Michael Holt is the leading player on show in the first part of the morning session on Tuesday. The former Shootout champion will go up against the competent Chris Wakelin on the main table while over on the other table first up one of the amateurs in the field will be in action when John Astley goes up against Allan Taylor who had a couple of good wins in the British Open last week and will be hoping to emulate that by winning here.
Ali Carter is the main man in the morning session and he’ll grace the main table in the second set of matches in the morning session. Carter was a maximum man last week and he’ll be hoping to take that sort of form with him into his match with Dylan Emery, while over on the other table the youngster Sean Maddocks will be looking to make it into the main draw when he takes on the often tough to beat Chinese player Tian Pengfei.
Afternoon Session
There are two competitive matches to start the afternoon off with. The main table will see the local man Tom Ford looking to make progress through to the final stages of the competition when he goes up against the lowly ranked but capable Zak Surety while over on the other table Ashley Carty will look to revive the form of a season or so ago when he meets Jamie Jones, a player who will be eager to make a mark on the competition as he still completes his first two year circuit back on the tour.
The second set of matches sees someone from Thailand making progress when the two star players from that nation meet as Thepchaiya Un-Nooh takes on Noppon Saengkham in a clash which will have plenty of intrigue to it. The other table will give us a glimpse into the future when two of the younger members of the tour battle it out as Lei Peifan goes up against Jackson Page who will be eager to start building his ranking after getting his tour card back from Q-School earlier in the year.
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Evening Session
Once again we have just the one set of matches in the evening session and the highest ranked player on show is Martin O’Donnell. He copped a bit of criticism at the British Open last week for his slow play and it will be interesting to see how he goes about his work against one of the quickest players on the circuit in Jamie Wilson. The other match sees the Chinese player Fan Zhengyi going up against David Lilley in a clash which gives both men a good opportunity to progress.
Betting
I’ll go with the one bet over the course of the day on Tuesday and that comes in the big Thai showdown between Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Noppon Saengkham where I like the latter to come through at odds against. Saengkham has begun the season well having made it out of his first group in the Championship League, overcoming John Higgins in the process, and then making it into the second round of the British Open where he led eventual semi-finalist Jimmy Robertson 2-1 before sitting out the last two frames despite doing nothing wrong.
Thepchaiya hasn’t enjoyed the same strong beginning to the season and even in a couple of formats that should have suited him in the Championship League and the British Open he couldn’t really come up with the goods. Un-Nooh is extremely talented and he can turn it on at any minute but generally his best form comes along when he is confident and there doesn’t seem to be much confidence in his play right now. That makes me think the perfectly competent Saengkham can get the better of his fellow Thai here.
Tips
Back N.Saengkham to beat T.Un-Nooh for a 3/10 stake at 2.05 with BetVictor
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