Home Nations £1m tournament

Xiao Guodong did the honours trouncing The Misery 4-1.
Good riddance.
Wu Yize fended off Barry Hawkins to win 4-3 while Ding Junhui contrived to lose in a deciding frame to Luca Brecel despite making two centuries.
Chris Wakelin continues his strong season after beating Xing Zihao 4-3.

This evening Tom Ford convincingly dispatched Long Zehuang 4-1.

Props to Luca, he too would make a good winner. Glad Wu Yize fo Schnizze got thru.

Former champion Mark Allen scraped past Jack Lisowski in a high quality encounter via a deciding frame.
Noppon Saengkham produced a fine display to eliminate Ali Carter 4-2.
And Lei Peifan staged a superb recovery from 1-3 down against Stuart Bingham to prevail 4-3.

The playing conditions look the best of any tournament I have watched this season. The cushions are playing nicely and the pace of the tables seems just right. Players bang on about poor playing conditions sometimes but they cannot complain at all this week imo.

Quarter Finals:

Tom Ford v Lei Peifan
Mark Allen v Noppon Saengkham
Chris Wakelin v Wu Yize
Luca Brecel v Xiao Guodong

Fascinating set of matches.
This could be a very enjoyable few days of snooker coming up. A really intriguing last eight.

Saw that Luca snooker escape, quite bizarre.

Mark Allen the biggest name left, so perhaps a big chance for one of the others.

Fantastic start to the quarter finals! Wakelin with 2 centuries, including a 103 in the 8th frame to level at 4-4, but it was Wu Yize with a decisive 66 break in the decider that emerged triumphant! If Selby's missus is as much of a Wu Yize supporter as she displayed last week in the shootout, she'll be delighted!

Wu did well to win that decider, and then Xiao beat Luca 5-1,

Yep! the Chinese are coming! Tom Ford's fairy tale couple of weeks coming to an end as Lei Peifan became the 3rd Chinaman in the semis, winning a dramatic deciding frame on the blue to beat Ford 5-4. Elsewhere Mark Allen dispatched Noppon 5-2, making 3 centuries, to ensure Northern Ireland have a representative in the semis.

Semi finals: (best of 11 frames)

Wu Yize v Xiao Guodong

Mark Allen v Lei Peifan

Looks interesting, though you'd still favour Allen to win it back.