Cue Sports Weekly: Northern Ireland Open Locked In, Morocco Underway, and Scottish Open Qualifying Already Running

Quiet-ish week on results, but plenty moving into place. The Northern Ireland Open qualifiers wrapped up in Leicester, and there's a genuinely nice story buried in the draw sheet — Luca Brecel, who's been hovering dangerously close to the tour survival cut-off this season, ground out a 4-1 win over Mitchell Mann to book his spot in Belfast. He hadn't qualified for a single ranking event before this one, so it's a proper confidence boost at the right time.

Jordan Brown qualified for his home tournament with a clean 4-0 win, which is always a nice story for the Antrim crowd. And Liam Highfield — still riding the form that took him to that British Open semi-final a couple of weeks back — qualified again, alongside Tom Ford, Ricky Walden, Matthew Stevens, Ryan Day, Aaron Hill, Matthew Selt, and Michael Holt. The tournament proper heads to Belfast's Waterfront Hall next month.

Scottish Open qualifying is actually running as this goes to print, 20-23 September back in Leicester. And the next ranking stop on tour is the Shenzhen Open, 28 September through 4 October — first time the event's been staged in Shenzhen after relocating from Xi'an.

Morocco — Tournament Underway, Host Nation Off to a Flyer

The World Eight-Ball Pool Championship is properly up and running now in Marrakech, at the Aqua Mirage Resort, with around 18 countries and over 300 players competing across 24 categories through to the 27th.

Morocco's own teams have made the most of playing at home so far. Their women's side beat Senegal 12-3 and then Ireland 9-6, with Mariam Alami, Sara Fathi, and Wiam Bazza all going through their round against Senegal unbeaten. The men's team has picked up three wins from their first five rounds too.

I haven't been able to track down specific results yet for the NZ men's, ladies', under-23's, or over-50's teams — the coverage so far is understandably weighted toward the host nation this early in the draw. Once there's proper match-by-match reporting out of Marrakech, that's where we'll get the actual word on how the boys are doing.

Heyball — Still Quiet

Nothing new to report here again this week. We'll flag it the moment something breaks.

Now Playable — Snookong

It's a nice fit with the drills we've been running lately too — potting in strict order is exactly what the Baulk Fan and the Nine-Ball Ladder are built around, so if that kind of discipline appeals on a real table, give Snookong a go on your break.

Weekly Drill — "The Red Fan"

Anchor the cue ball on the brown spot, dead centre of the D. Set out three reds, each sitting exactly on the straight line between the cue ball and a different pocket — one to the top-right corner, one to the bottom-right corner, one to the top side pocket.

Pot red one into the top-right corner with a firm draw shot, pulling the cue ball back down the same line to your starting spot on brown. Reset, pot red two into the bottom-right corner the same way, then red three into the top side. Every shot's dead straight, so this isolates the exact skill that opens a real break — a controlled first red with the cue ball coming straight back to open position, rather than chasing wherever it happens to end up.

Run it 10 times. A clean run is all three reds potted with the cue ball returning within a tip's width of the starting spot each time. 6/10 clean runs is a strong result.

Looking Ahead

Scottish Open qualifying wraps up on the 23rd, with the tournament itself not landing until 14-20 December in Edinburgh — a long wait, but worth noting now. The Shenzhen Open is the next event actually on court, running 28 September to 4 October, and it's the first time the tournament's been staged there after relocating from Xi'an. The Northern Ireland Open proper follows next month at Belfast's Waterfront Hall.

And the big one: the World Eight-Ball Pool Championship in Marrakech wraps up on the 27th, so next week we should finally have real results for the NZ squads.