The biggest surprise of the first ranking event of the season is Dave Harold. The 42 year old Staffordshire based cueman has always been a talented player and has on a couple of occasions broken into Snooker’s elite 16. For someone of his ability he has often struggled to push on and finds himself languishing just outside the top 16.
This season’s Northern Ireland Trophy has certainly built up his confidence though with a spot in the last 8 against defending champion, Stephen Maguire. Harold’s win over Stephen Lee yesterday cemented his place in the 1/4 finals and with it comes some decent prize money and all important ranking points.
Harold’s opponent today, Stephen Maguire, had a tough 5-4 victory over Aan McManus and has kind of glided through to the last 8 without a mention.
Another to look for is Mark Allen, in front of his home crowd he could be difficult to stop and has certainly started well in his first season in the top 16.
The other major shock was Ian McCulloch beating Mark Selby 5-4, Selby one of the most consistent players on tour last year has a new cue action (See: The Long and the Short of It - Snooker Scene Blog). In his first match it didn’t seem to trouble him as he comfortably won 5-1 over a less than impressive Andrew Higginson. This match was different and against the battling attitude of McCulloch trying to contend with a new action as well was obviously too much. Good luck to McCulloch in the 1/4 finals but I do think there is a lot more to come from Mark Selby this year.
Complete Last 16 Results
Stephen Maguire (Sco) bt Alan McManus (Sco) 5-4
John Higgins (Sco) bt Liang Wenbo (Chi) 5-1
Mark Allen (NIrl) bt Mark Williams (Wal) 5-3
Dave Harold (Eng) bt Stephen Lee (Eng) 5-4
Ali Carter (Eng) bt Mark Davis (Eng) 5-2
Ian McCulloch (Eng) bt Mark Selby (Eng) 5-4
Ronnie O’Sullivan (Eng) bt Joe Perry (Eng) 5-3
Barry Hawkins (Eng) bt Ryan Day (Wal) 5-3
Quarter-Final Draw
- Stephen Maguire (Sco) v Dave Harold (Eng)
- John Higgins (Sco) v Ian McCulloch (Eng)
- Mark Allen (NI) v Allister Carter (Eng)
- Barry Hawkins (Eng) v Ronnie O’Sullivan (Eng)
