Jimmy White advances during opening day of 2024 Northern Ireland Open snooker

Whilst the ongoing British Open in Cheltenham was moving to the one-table set-up for its semi-finals, the opening day of the latest Home Nations Series was taking place at Ponds Forge in Sheffield.

Players seeded outside the top 64 competed on Saturday across eight tables, with the winners meeting those seeded 33 to 64 on Sunday. The winners of those matches then meet the top 32 seeds for the televised stages which are set between October 20-27 at the Waterfront Hall in the Northern Irish capital city.

In a contest between two players who won the prestigious English Amateur Snooker Championship as teenagers, 62-year-old White top scored with a 77 on his way to establishing 3-1 lead over Q-School top-up Paul Deaville.

Teenager Deaville - more than three times younger than his opponent - took the next two frames to force a decider, but White eventually progressed with the aid of a 69 break in frame seven. It’s Jackson Page next for White.

Ishpreet Singh Chadha enjoyed a breakthrough run to the semi-finals of the recent English Open, and India's number one professional is on his way again in a Home Nations Series event; registering runs of 76 and 62 as he eliminated Florian Nuessle, 4-1.

It was a brilliant day for Indian snooker as World Snooker Tour newbie Kreishh Gurbaxani secured his first win as a professional with a 4-1 victory over Andrew Higginson.

Rory Thor defeated both Mark Williams and Neil Robertson on the main TV table at the British Open earlier this week, and Malaysia's top cueist continued his fine run of form and results as he crafted an effort of 113 in the deciding frame to pip Mark Joyce, 4-3. Only on Wednesday, Thor denied Joyce by the same scoreline in the last 64 at the Centaur.

Welsh teenager Liam Davies recovered from 2-0 down against Dean Young, beginning a four-frame winning streak with a break of 104 in a 4-2 success. Another teenage rookie, Poland's Antoni Kowalski posted a 108 in a 4-3 win over Hammad Miah.

Arguably the best quality tie of the day, so far, came between Long Zehuang and Haydon Pinhey. Breaks of 51 and 80 helped Long move 2-0 up, but Pinhey contributed with 74, 70 and 74 across the next three frames to take the lead.

However, Long made a 59 in frame six as he forced a decider, and when Pinhey missed a tricky black at the start of frame seven having slotted home a long opening red, Chinese cueist Long fully punished with a match-winning sequence of 86.

Stuart Carrington started his match against Simon Blackwell strongly with runs of 62 and 107, but Q-School top up Blackwell claimed four of the next five frames - along with breaks of 50, 75 and 65 - as he earned a 4-3 win. Iran's Amir Sarkhosh also came back from 2-0 down to defeat Ka Wai Cheung, 4-2.

Another Q-School invite to advance was Daniel Womersley; he capped a 4-1 triumph over Ben Mertens with a run of 100.

Northern Irish amateur wildcard Joel Connolly caused an upset as he ousted Ian Burns, 4-3. The 16-year-old notched up contributions of 60 and 70.

The biggest comeback of the day arrived in the final match to finish. Hungarian teenager Bulcsu Revesz was 3-0 down to Ukraine’s Iulian Boiko, before stringing together the next four frames - starting with a 101 break in frame five - for a 4-3 win.

Duane Jones and Wang Yuchen each constructed a century break en route to their victories in Yorkshire.

For full details on the 2024 Northern Ireland Open including the draw, results, prize money and schedule, please visit our tournament information centre here.