THE 2024-25 NIBSA season gets going this weekend, with the first ranking event being held at the Antrim Sports Club.
The eight quarter-finalists will be determined over the next two weekends and with a total of 79 entries it is a highly competitive field.
Robbie McGuigan is not among that number as the 20-year-old has started life on World Snooker’s Main Tour, but, as always, the host club still has a strong hand with Raymond Fry, Declan Lavery and Northern Ireland Championship runner-up Ryan McQuillan all strong contenders.
McQuillan’s conqueror in that Northern Ireland Championship final in June, Darren Dornan, begins the new season at number two in the rankings and he will be gunning for top spot, currently held by eight-times Northern Ireland champion Patrick Wallace from Dungannon.
Wallace joins the action on Saturday, along with McQuillan and another top-16 player, Stephen Brady from Derry, while Loughinisland’s Dornan, who plays out of Drumaness Snooker Club, begins on Sunday. Declan Lavery, Joe Meara and Paul Lindsay are other notable contenders for those two last-eight places on day two.
Raymond Fry enters the action on the second weekend along with other potential winners Fergal Quinn from Coalisland, Armagh’s Declan Hughes, Belfast teenager Joel Connolly and Anto Heaney, representing current All-Ireland club champions, Blackstaff Snooker Club.
