ANTRIM trio Mark Allen, Jordan Brown and Robbie McGuigan are all in action in Sheffield this week as they attempt to qualify for the International Championship.
World number three Allen, who has found some form in recent weeks to reach the quarter-final of the BetVictor English Open and the semi-final of the Unibet British Open, faces Farakh Ajaib of Pakistan on Wednesday (2.30pm).
Brown and McGuigan will be in action on Tuesday, with the former facing Gong Chenzhi of China (9.30am) and the latter taking on Joe O’Connor (7.30pm).
The final stages of the event will be played in Nanjing, China between November 3 and 10 and Brown will be hoping to emulate or even better his performance of last year, when he beat David Gilbert, Kyren Wilson, John Higgins and Stephen Maguire to reach the semi-final, where he lost 9-6 to Tom Ford.
The world number 45 comes into Tuesday’s game boosted by reaching the final stages of his home event – the BetVictor Northern Ireland Open, which takes place at the Waterfront in Belfast between October 20 and 27. He accomplished that by beating Welsh teenager Liam Davies 4-1 in Sheffield on Sunday, helped by breaks of 113 and 83.
Rookie pro McGuigan – whose £12,000 in prize money accrued to date has him at number 78 on the one-year ranking list – won’t be at the Waterfront after he lost his qualifier 4-3 to Scotland’s Chris Totten, but victory over world number 31 O’Connor in the best-of-11 encounter would be a significant scalp and would give him a second visit of the season to China. He travels there for the Wuhan Open next week, where he faces Ding Junhui in his opening match.
Brown and Allen will also be in Wuhan, with the former due to face Chinese wildcard Jinhao Zhou and the latter scheduled to take on Wales’s Jamie Clarke.
World number 62 Aaron Hill, who beat Ding 4-3 in the Unibet British Open last week before losing 4-1 to Allen, takes on England’s Liam Pullen on Tuesday (7.30pm). The Cork man will also miss out on Belfast after a 4-3 loss to Louis Heathcote, and his next assignment after Tuesday will also be in Wuhan, where he faces the winner of the match between world champion Kyren Wilson and Liam Davies.
