Brian Cini, the reigning Maltese snooker champion, has earned a place among the sixteen amateur players who will compete in the UK Championship qualification rounds. His qualification follows his achievement earlier this year, when he finished as a finalist at the IBSF World Snooker Championships for amateurs, held last February in Saïda, Morocco.
The UK Championship is widely regarded as the second most prestigious event in professional snooker after the World Championship. The qualifying phase in which Cini will take part will be held at the Robin Park Leisure Centre in Wigan, beginning on Saturday, 22 November, and concluding on Thursday, 27 November. Out of the 128 competitors in this stage, the top sixteen will progress to the main draw of the UK Championship, joining the world’s top sixteen professional players who automatically qualify as seeded finalists.
In the first qualifying round, Cini will face 24-year-old Welsh player Dylan Emery, who began his professional career on the World Snooker Tour in the 2022/23 season and is currently ranked 91st in the world. Their match will be played on Saturday at 10:30am (local time). The winner will advance to the second round to meet China’s Chang Bingyu. All matches in the UK Championship, except for the final stages, are played in a best-of-11-frames format.
Two days after the qualification phase concludes, the final stages of the UK Championship will commence, running from Saturday, 29 November, to Sunday, 7 December. As in recent years, the event will be held at the Barbican Centre in York.
Sports Editor
Veteran Journalist
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