2006 Northern Ireland Trophy Draw Made

The 2006 Northern Ireland Trophy is the opening ranking event of the 2006-2007 snooker season and is a new event. World Champion Graeme Dott (Scotland) is automatically Number 1 seed. Matthew Stevens (Wales) would usually have this distinction as the 2005 winner of this event, but since it was not a ranking event, this distinction is lost, and Dott becomes Number 1 seed. The other seedings are one down from their ranking until you get to Dott at Number 6, therefore World Number 1 Stephen Hendry is Number 2 seed.

Round One (best of 9 frames)

David Gray (England) v Qualifier
Mark Selby (England) v Qualifier
Joe Swail (Northern Ireland) v Qualifier
Marco Fu (Hong Kong) v Qualifier
Joe Perry (England) v Qualifier
Ryan Day (Wales) v Qualifier
Mark King (England) v Qualifier
Alan McManus (Scotland) v Qualifier
James Wattana (Thailand) v Qualifier
Michael Holt (England) v Qualifier
Ding Junhui (China) v Qualifier
Robert Milkins (England) v Qualifier
Andy Hicks (England) v Qualifier
Nigel Bond (England) v Qualifier
Stuart Bingham (England) v Qualifier
Ian McCulloch (England) v Qualifier

Round Two (best of 9 frames)

Graeme Dott (Scotland) v Gray or Qualifier
Allister Carter (England) v Selby or Qualifier
Steve Davis (England) v Swail or Qualifier
Peter Ebdon (England) v Fu or Qualifier
Mark Williams (Wales) v Perry or Qualifier
Barry Hawkins (England) v Day or Qualifier
Matthew Stevens (Wales) v King or Qualifier
Ronnie O'Sullivan (England) v McManus or Qualifier
Ken Doherty (Ireland) v Wattana or Qualifier
Stephen Maguire (Scotland) v Holt or Qualifier
Anthony Hamilton (England) v Junhui or Qualifier
John Higgins (Scotland) v Milkins or Qualifier
Shaun Murphy (England) v Hicks or Qualifier
Neil Robertson (Australia) v Bond or Qualifier
Stephen Lee (England) v Bingham or Qualifier
Stephen Hendry (Scotland) v McCulloch or Qualifier

There are some mouth-watering possibilities in the early stages of this tournament. There is a possible O'Sullivan-McManus Round Two match - a real contrast of styles. The Murphy-Robertson Round Three match is also a good one on paper. Of course, both Jimmy White (England) and Paul Hunter (England) the two biggest fan favourites in the game, are coming through qualifiers this weekend, so should they advance they would be opponents that want to be avoided.

Source

• www.globalsnookercentre.co.uk

Date

Wed 07/26/06, 9:08 am EST