2008 Northern Ireland Trophy

Tournament summary

• Notable comebacks in the qualifiers included: Li Hang coming from 0–4 down to beat Irish prodigy David Morris 5–4, and both Jimmy White and Ian Preece came from 2–4 behind to win their matches 5–4, against Jamie Jones and Paul Davies respectively.
• Jimmy White qualified for the final stage of an event for the first time in over a year, stretching back to the 2007 China Open.
• Long standing top-16 players, Mark Williams, Ken Doherty and Stephen Lee were playing in the qualifiers for the first time in over a decade.
• Last year's runner-up, Fergal O'Brien fell at the first hurdle, losing 3–5 to Michael Holt.
• In his match against Mark Selby, Andrew Higginson was playing in front of the TV cameras for the first time since his run to the final of the 2007 Welsh Open.
• Dominic Dale came from 1–4 down against Mark Allen to level at 4–4, before Allen played superbly to take the decider.
• In beating Ding Junhui 5–4, Mark Davis secured one of the best wins of his career.
• Ronnie O'Sullivan won three quick consecutive frames to oust former world champion Ken Doherty 5–4 in the last 32.
• Stephen Maguire won the last three frames to beat Alan McManus 5–4, a player who had not reached the last 16 of an event the previous season.
• Dave Harold beat Stephen Lee 5–4, a player who had been considered one of the tournaments in-form players, having knocked in three centuries, including a high break of 145.
• Harold increased his head-to-head record to 3–0 over Stephen Maguire by beating him 5–2 in the quarter-finals, afterwards Maguire stated that he never seems to perform against Harold.
• Barry Hawkins produced a brave fightback to recover from 1–4 to level at 4–4 against Ronnie O'Sullivan in their quarter-final match, before the world champion took the decider.
• Dave Harold led John Higgins 5–1, but won only 6–4, to reach his first ranking final since 1994, the gap between those two ranking finals is the longest in snooker history.

  Prize fund

• Winner: £30,000
• Runner-up: £15,000
• Semi-final: £7,500
• Quarter-final: £5,600
• Last 16: £4,000
• Last 32: £2,500
• Last 48: £1,625
• Last 64: £1,100
• Stage one highest break: £500
• Stage two highest break: £2,000
• Stage one maximum break: £1,000
• Stage two maximum break: £20,000
• Total: £200,500

  Main draw

Final

Qualifying

Century breaks

Qualifying stage centuries

• 130, 114 James McBain
• 128, 114 Stuart Pettman
• 127 Andy Hicks
• 127 Liang Wenbo
• 126 Liu Song
• 125 Adrian Gunnell
• 121 Andy Lee
• 120 Jamie Burnett
• 119 Ricky Walden
• 111 Stephen Lee
• 109 Ian Preece
• 108 Mark Davis
• 101 Rodney Goggins
• 101 Robert Milkins

  Televised stage centuries

• 145, 116, 111 Stephen Lee
• 139, 110 Ian McCulloch
• 134, 126, 115, 111 Barry Hawkins
• 134 Michael Judge
• 134 Ryan Day
• 132, 122, 110, 110, 108, 103 Ronnie O'Sullivan
• 127 Stephen Maguire
• 113 Anthony Hamilton
• 106 Mark Allen
• 106 Ali Carter
• 104 Liang Wenbo
• 103 John Higgins
• 103 Ricky Walden