O'Connor hits nine-darter as Dolan reaches last eight

Limerick's Willie O’Connor had the perfect start at the Players Championship 8 as he opened with a nine-darter in his 6-1 win over Jimmy Hendriks.

'The Magpie’ averaged 104.8 in the rout in Hildesheim, Germany and followed it up with a 6-3 win over England’s Cameron Crabtree.

However, his tournament came to an end at the last 32 stage as he lost out 6-4 to Mike de Decker of Belgium.

Brendan Dolan went the further of the Irish contingent. He started with a 6-0 whitewash of England’s Graham Hall before advancing to the next round with a 6-3 win over Germany’s Florian Hempel.

He was pushed hard by Karel Sedlacek of the Czech Republic in the next round but a 6-4 win saw him through to the last 16.

Another tight match followed the Fermanagh man, but a 6-5 win over Scotland's Andy Boulton saw him into the quarter-finals.

It was there that his run ended however followed a 6-5 to word number 21 Krzysztof Ratajski.

Steve Lennon was a comfortable 6-1 winner against Lewis Williams of Wales in the last 64 having opened with a 6-3 win over England’s Callan Rydz. A narrow 6-5 defeat to Ricardo Pietreczko however saw his run come to an end.

Daryl Gurney lost 6-3 to Poland’s Krzysztof Kciuk in the first round, Dylan Slevin was defeated 6-4 by England’s Scott Williams at the same stage and John O’Shea and Michael Mansell also exited at the first hurdles after losses to Jeffrey Sparidaans of the Netherlands (6-2) and France’s Thibault Tricole (6-3) respectively.

Kevin Burness also lost 6-3 against world number 17 Dave Chisnall while Josh Rock was pipped 6-5 by Gian van Veen, also of the Netherlands. Keane Barry went down 6-4 to Scotland’s Alan Soutar.