THE FOUR DAY TWITCH

Visitors to the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield later this week will have a chance to witness more twitching than they might find at a birdwatching convention as the final qualifying round of the 888.com World Championship takes place over four days.

For the players, this is one of the biggest matches of the year. The difference between qualifying and not qualifying is huge for a number of reasons.

Failure at the qualifiers means players miss out on the big financial rewards on offer at the Crucible as well as ranking points (almost double most other tournaments) that will help determine their positions for next season.

But disappointment at not qualifying can be boiled down very simply to this: you’re not part of the World Championship.

When it comes round, you have to either watch it on TV, pretend it’s not on or go away on holiday to escape it (not easy now it’s on so many channels around the world).

So who is going to get through?

Jimmy White will be the main focus of interest (unless you’re a reader of worldsnooker.com, who have instead focused on Mike Dunn, one of their own board members!).

Jimmy missed out last year and, at 45 years of age and well down the rankings, will probably be at the Crucible for the final time if he does beat Mark King a week today.

We all know that he’s never won it and lost six finals but this ignores the fact that, in his heyday, he had one of the best Crucible records and did as much as anyone, and more than most, to draw millions of TV viewers to the event.

No disrespect to King, but I’d love to see Jimmy qualify and draw Stephen Hendry in the first round. It’d give us nostalgics one last chance to wallow in one of snooker’s most fascinating rivalries.

John Parrott impressed last year but needs to beat Joe Perry – something he’s never previously done – to avoid going to Sheffield purely as a BBC broadcaster.

And what of the young guns? Jamie Cope, Mark Allen and Judd Trump would certainly enliven the championship.

Liang Wenbo and Liu Chuang would also take some of the pressure off Ding Junhui by helping him to fly the flag for China.

Cope, Liang and Liu are among seven players who could make their debuts at the Crucible next month.

The others are Adrian Gunnell (four times a loser in the final qualifying round), Scott MacKenzie, Ricky Walden and Rory McLeod.

Rory faces Matthew Stevens, runner-up in 2000 and 2005, and would become the first player of Afro-Caribbean descent ever to play at the Crucible if he beats him.

The draw is being held on March 11 when the 16 qualifiers are paired against the top 16.

Before that happens, there will be plenty of twitching, sweating and anxiety on display.

I for one can't wait.