Seeing his face plastered across the tournament posters brought the Dafabet Northern Ireland Open memories flooding back for Mark King.

It was in Belfast where personal history was made for the Romford cueman exactly 12 months ago, lifting his maiden ranking title 25 years after first entering the scene.

So, given a chance to return, with the top-seed status and a trophy to defend for the first time, there was little surprise King was keen to soak up the entire occasion.

While his first-round, post-midnight victory over Matthew Bolton didn’t match the emotion and the tears of the penniless potter of 2016, the importance was there for all to see at the Waterfront Hall, King easing his way into the last-64 with a 4-1 victory.

A second-round match against Ashley Hugill awaits on Wednesday but, for now at least, the 45-year-old allowed himself to revel in just a little bit of nostalgia.

“It’s brilliant to be back, Ireland always seems to be a place I do well in even before last year so I was a little bit nervous before that first frame,” said the Grove-based cueman.

“As you come in, my face is up on the posters next to Ronnie O’Sullivan and it’s a nice feeling, you’re not just one of the ‘numpties’ as Ronnie would say!

“I’m still champion for another couple of days at least so let’s see how it goes.

“All the tournaments this season have been normal, but the week before this one I was becoming very nervous and excited, but I’m feeling pretty good in myself.

“Since 2015, where I started my game again from scratch, it’s been tough and I’ve worked hard and done well in the past year and a half, but now I just need to keep working harder.”

While King's return was sweet, Mark Allen's Northern Ireland homecoming was at times painful in Belfast.

Struggling with the pressure in the build-up, the hometown hero kept his cool but lost his form, narrowly scraping past Sanderson Lam.

But with the first hurdle out of the way, the world No.7 is keeping his focus firmly on the future and what could be an important week in his career.

“In the build-up I felt more pressure this year than I did last, but when I went out there I didn’t feel anywhere near as bad, I just didn’t play that great,” he said.

“That can happen in a first-round match, I’ll take the positives out of getting through and I’ve been playing well over the past couple of months so I’m not that worried.

“Before my next game I’m actually having my tooth pulled out, so I was looking forward to that more than the snooker tournament a few days ago.

“I’ll get that done on Tuesday, but hopefully I’ll have some time to practice in preparation for Wednesday.”

Watch the Northern Ireland Open LIVE on Eurosport, Eurosport Player and Quest with Colin Murray and daily studio analysis with Neal Foulds