A fine 5-1 win over Marcus Campbell yesterday landed Valletta-born cueist Tony Drago in the Last 48 in the Northern Ireland trophy.

The event is being held for the first time ever and is the first ranking tournament of the new season. The event continues later this month in Belfast.

Following yesterday’s win, Drago will now be meeting Mark Selby for a place in the last 32.

In the previous round, Drago had beaten China’s Liu Song 5-3, after the Chinese player had beaten Malta and European champion Alex Borg 5-3 in a frist round match.

Two ‘big’ names eliminated yesterday were former champion John Parrott MBE, who crashed out 5-1 against Andrew Norman and Dave Harold, who was eliminated by Jamie Burnett after a 5-1 defeat.