CRUCIBLE COUNTDOWN: FIRST ROUND PREDICTIONS

Over the next two days I will be previewing all of the first round matches at the Betfred.com World Championship and giving my score predictions (please feel free to do the same).

It’s an intriguing draw, featuring the top 16 against a fascinating bunch of qualifiers. We have every world champion of the last 20 years. We have three young debutants. We have some familiar faces capable of causing upsets.

Here is what I think of the top half...

JOHN HIGGINS v LIANG WENBO

Higgins has had a poor season by his own high standards. He told me at the launch last week that it was quite a simple equation: he hasn’t practised enough.

Higgins explained that because of the increase in tournaments, when he got home from an event he didn’t the next day want to be going out of the house again to the club when he could spend time with his children. He knows he has to manage his time better and is building a snooker room in his house for next season.

Nobody has defended the world title since Stephen Hendry did so 16 years ago. Higgins described walking down the Crucible steps on the first morning as “the most nerve-wracking feeling in snooker.” As Steve Davis once commented: “the first shock hasn’t happened yet and it could be you.”

But Higgins is also one of the finest ever world champions, with four titles under his belt in a very competitive era. He has gone to Sheffield in the past in good form and lost early.

Liang is a maverick; erratic but capable of brilliance. He withstood a fine comeback from Marcus Campbell in the final qualifying round after his 8-2 lead became 9-9. They were taken off at that point, I’m sure much to Liang’s relief.

He can certainly cause Higgins problems but, the way he plays, leaves plenty of chances and assuming Higgins has put the work in this last fortnight I would expect the Scot to prevail, albeit not by much.

PREDICTION: Higgins to win 10-7

STUART BINGHAM v STEPHEN HENDRY

Bingham famously beat Hendry 10-7 in the first round 12 years ago when Hendry was defending champion. Since then, Hendry has declined as a major force and Bingham has become a top 16 player and tournament winner.

Hendry is currently in China undertaking exhibition engagements for a Chinese sponsor. He apparently gets back late on Thursday and plays on Saturday afternoon.

He was a shareholder in 110sport, which went bust a year ago, and may have felt it impossible to turn down this financially lucrative commitment but it isn’t ideal preparation and it would have been unthinkable he would have gone to China the week before the Crucible in his heyday.

Bingham has not set the world alight since winning the Australian Open last July but has had to adjust to becoming a father for the first time. He will of course be bang up for the World Championship and, having beaten Hendry when the Scot was still a major title contender, shouldn’t fear playing him now he’s been relegated from the top 16.

Hendry is still a very capable player. He invariably starts matches well, then his concentration wanes. Whether he eventually wins or not depends on whether it returns.

PREDICTION: Bingham to win 10-6

STEPHEN MAGUIRE v LUCA BRECEL

One of the most intriguing of all the first rounders as Brecel becomes the youngest player ever to compete at the Crucible.

After a debut season in which he failed to hit the heights, Brecel was superb last week in beating four very experienced players – Ian McCulloch, Barry Pinches, Michael Holt and Mark King – to qualify.

Young Luca is a fascinating character. He seems able to retreat into his own little world, which is ideal for a snooker player.

But Maguire knows how to put the lad in his place. He’s quietly done well since the turn of the year: winning PTC12, semi-finals of the PTC finals plus runners-up spots in the German Masters and China Open.

Maguire’s only really had one good Crucible – five years ago when he reached the semi-finals – but I feel this could be another.

He should have no problem ignoring the hype surrounding his opponent. Maguire is a strong match player and particularly good at closing the shop after going 50-odd points ahead. He is dangerous when his head is right.

I don’t think Brecel will be disgraced. I think he will compete well.

But I also think Maguire will have too much for him.

PREDICTION: Maguire to win 10-6

GRAEME DOTT v JOE PERRY

Dott had a bee in his bonnet at the Crucible in 2006 that predictions were always for his opponent and not him. Well, Dotty, you might want to stop reading now...

The truth is, despite his fine Crucible record (three finals in the last eight years), Dott’s season has not been great and so there is no obvious reason to tip him for a long run this year, aside from his proven quality in the tournament.

He was beaten by Perry at the Crucible four years ago and again in the PTC grand finals last month. Perry, a world semi-finalist in 2008, seems to be playing well again and is one of those players with plenty of experience, capable of making it really tough for anyone.

These two are evenly matched, but Perry shades it for me.

PREDICTION: Perry to win 10-7

SHAUN MURPHY v JAMIE JONES

Jones is playing the best snooker of his career. His 10-2 demolition of Ricky Walden in the final qualifying round was unexpected but well deserved for a player who has worked really hard this last couple of years.

Jones seems to understand what quite a few young players don’t: you haven’t made it just because you’ve turned professional. In fact, this is only the start. The hard work begins once you get on the tour.

John Higgins didn’t play well against him in Galway but I’ve seen many lower ranked players have a chance to beat a top star and twitch up. Jones didn’t do this. He clearly has plenty of self belief.

He’ll need all this and more against Murphy, a player of proven quality who won the title in 2005 and was runner-up in 2009.

Murphy’s season has been consistent if not spectacular. He’s another hard worker, another player who treats the game with the utmost respect.

It’s Jones’s debut and that has to be a factor. The Crucible is like no other venue. He could be forgiven for making a bad start and this is Murphy’s chance to impose himself.

Still, it could be close.

PREDICTION: Murphy to win 10-7

STEPHEN LEE v ANDREW HIGGINSON

Lee is on a dream run of form. Since the turn of the year he’s won a title, been in a final and reached two semi-finals. He’s playing his best snooker since he reached the Crucible semi-finals in 2003.

Some have questioned Lee’s stamina over a much longer tournament but his stamina hasn’t been a problem these last few months. It is not only form which has returned, it is also his belief. He is feeling happy about his game. He’s enjoying it again.

Higginson is more consistent than he’s ever been, a regular qualifier for tournaments. He was a semi-finalist just last month in the PTC finals.

It was Lee who beat him there and Higginson knows he is playing one of the season’s most successful players and will have to be at the very top of his game to threaten an upset.

PREDICTION: Lee to win 10-5

ALI CARTER V MARK DAVIS

Carter’s health has been a major issue this season and this has led to a deterioration in both form and confidence.

He at least won a couple of matches in Beijing last month and has always been determined. I’ve no doubt Ali will fight tooth and nail to try and keep his top 16 place.

Davis is much improved these last couple of years. I think winning the six reds world title in December 2009 was the catalyst for finding some belief in himself after years of what is usually described as ‘journeyman’ status.

He hasn’t quite made that next step up with either a long run in an event or by clinching a top 16 place, although he has been very close.

Close is what this match could be, but Carter is the heavier scorer and this may be the difference.

PREDICTION: Carter to win 10-8

JUDD TRUMP v DOMINIC DALE

Dale could have beaten Trump at the UK Championship and perhaps would have done had Trump, trailing 4-2, not had two vital flukes.

Trump of course grew stronger after coming through the match and won the title. He is favourite in the betting for the World Championship.

I love watching Trump play. His game is based around an audacious potting ability but also some sound tactical stuff when he needs to employ it.

One thing Trump needs to guard against is the expectations of others, and their influences too. This was Jimmy White’s Achilles’ heel more than his ‘bottle’.

World Snooker, and the media who wished to interview him, were not best pleased that Trump failed to attend the draw this week after it was announced he would be there.

It's beneficial to snooker that he appears in photo-shoots and so on but Trump doesn't need to have an image created for him. As Neil Robertson has said, why not just let him be himself? Trying to live up to an image brings only distractions.

This is the danger of fame, even of success, although it's a nice problem to have after a tough apprenticeship in the anonymous qualifiers.

There is no textbook on how to deal with suddenly being flavour of the month. So far Trump has dealt with it well. He seems very laid back about it all.

Trump remains a nice, humble young man, very talented, dedicated and absolutely capable of winning the title. If he did it would be great for snooker, but it isn’t a certainty, as White knows only too well.

PREDICTION: Trump to win 10-6

CRUCIBLE DRAW MADE TODAY

The draw for the Betfred.com World Championship will be made at 1.30pm.

It is live on Talksport radio. It's surprising that the BBC are not covering it given that they are host broadcaster for the tournament but it's a coup for Talksport. Judd Trump and Barry Hearn will be in the studio for reactions.

And here is the full draw:

John Higgins v Liang Wenbo
Stuart Bingham v Stephen Hendry
Stephen Maguire v Luca Brecel
Graeme Dott v Joe Perry
Shaun Murphy v Jamie Jones
Stephen Lee v Andrew Higginson
Ali Carter v Mark Davis
Judd Trump v Dominic Dale
Mark Williams v Liu Chuang
Ronnie O'Sullivan v Peter Ebdon
Martin Gould v Dave Gilbert
Neil Robertson v Ken Doherty
Ding Junhui v Ryan Day
Mark Allen v Cao Yupeng
Matthew Stevens v Marco Fu
Mark Selby v Barry Hawkins

HENDRY'S BIG WEEKEND

The last time Stephen Hendry had to qualify for the Crucible, Margaret Thatcher was in Downing Street and Ronald Reagan was in the White House.

Mobile phones were the size of a house brick and if you mentioned the internet to anyone they would assume you were talking about fishing.

The year was 1988. Hendry was 19 but had already won two of that season’s world ranking tournaments, the Grand Prix and British Open.

He defeated Jon Wright 10-4 to qualify for Sheffield and has been there as a seed ever since. Earlier this season he lost his place in the elite top 16 and has thus returned to the qualifiers: older and considerably richer than he was 24 years ago but still as determined as ever.

Tonight, Hendry will play Jimmy White at the Crucible in a Snooker Legends event. There will be much rekindling of golden memories – at least for Hendry – but the serious business starts tomorrow.

The signs are encouraging. Hendry has only lost one qualifier all season. He has adjusted to life in the prelims better than many other legends of the sport.

The truth is, Hendry is not playing consistently well enough to be a member of the top 16 but is still better than most players ranked below him.

Hendry’s opponent in the final qualifying round is Yu Delu, who was born a few weeks before Hendry won his first ranking title in October 1987.

Yu is one of a growing number of dangerous Chinese players. He will be well aware of Hendry’s record of achievement but has no reason to be too overawed.

They aren’t playing at the Crucible but in a cubicle in the badminton hall of the EIS in Sheffield. This is a leveller and Hendry could be forgiven for feeling the pressure.

He will be working for the BBC on the last five days of the World Championship but to fail to be part of the 32-man field would be a bitter blow for someone who used to own the place.

Nobody goes on forever. White and Steve Davis have already fallen by the wayside at this week. Former champions Ken Doherty and Peter Ebdon will be put through the mill of trying to qualify over the weekend.

There are younger faces around. Luca Brecel will become the youngest ever Crucible competitor if he beats Mark King.

But Hendry is the star attraction in the final qualifying round. The Crucible’s most successful player faces a nervy couple of days, not that nerves were ever a problem in his heyday.

HEROES OF THE CRUCIBLE: JOE SWAIL

Alan Hughes, snooker’s legendary former MC, loved a nickname and there were few more esoteric than ‘The Outlaw’ for Joe Swail – in reference to the film The Outlaw Josey Whales.

Yet it turned out to the apt. Swail was a gun-slinging fighter of a player with an unorthodox action but a heart as big as the Irish Sea, never more in evidence that at the World Championship during two memorable years in which he reached the semi-finals.

Swail had survived a nail-biter before he even got to the Crucible in 2000. He trailed 9-6 to Stephen Maguire, who missed a pink for the match. Reprieved, Swail hit back to win 10-9.

He beat Paul Hunter 10-6 in the first round and then from 12-8 down to John Parrott in the last 16 won five frames in succession.

It was an emotional time for Swail. His mother had died of cancer and snooker had not been his only focus.

It was hard not to warm to him. A Belfast boy based in Manchester, he was humble in victory or defeat and had battled a disability, his deafness in one ear.

Swail beat Dominic Dale 13-9 in the quarter-finals and was only 13-12 behind to Matthew Stevens in the semis before the Welshman pulled away to win 17-12.

A year later, Swail was at it again. He trailed Sean Storey 9-7 in the first round but came through 10-9.

But it is his second round match against Mark Williams which may have been his finest moment at the Crucible.

Williams was the defending champion and already well on his way to the status of an all time great.

He led 10-6 heading into Saturday morning’s final session. At 11-8 Williams was two frames from the quarter-finals but Swail won a black ball frame which turned the match. He followed it with a 140 total clearance and grew stronger as Williams began to succumb to the Crucible ‘curse’ of first time champions.

Two sizeable breaks in the last two frames saw Swail over the winning line. It was another comeback and he was on another dramatic Sheffield run.

In the quarter-finals, he played one of his best friends, Patrick Wallace, who was appearing in this stage of a ranking event for the first time.

It was a hard match for both of them. Ordinarily, one would be supporting the other. Between sessions they spent time together. It didn’t feel like the usual Crucible war of attrition.

Wallace led 6-2 but Swail won seven of the eight frames in the middle session and eve tually came home 13-11.

In the semi-finals, he was up against most people’s champion-elect, Ronnie O’Sullivan, who beat him 17-11.

Swail’s career reverted to the wild variations in form that had been a feature for years. He reached his first final at the Welsh Open in 2009 but has since seen his form collapse.

His defeat in the world qualifiers this week means he is off the tour, unless he can keep his place through Q School.

Swail’s last great Crucible hurrah came in 2008 when he played an extraordinary match against Liang Wenbo, which was full of incident and very nearly saw another great escape. 12-8 down, Swail recovered to 12-12 with two centuries but was finally beaten on the line.

For once, the fight had been in vain.

HEROES OF THE CRUCIBLE: GRAEME DOTT

Everyone has an opinion but you can’t argue with facts (although many people do) and the facts are this: in the last eight years, Graeme Dott has appeared in three world finals.

The first of these was in 2004. He was beaten 18-8 by Ronnie O’Sullivan but it’s perhaps forgotten that Dott actually led 5-0.

He had arrived in Sheffield with low expectations, bringing with him only two shirts and keeping a grateful nearby dry cleaning shop in business for the fortnight.

Dott had been on a rotten run prior to the championship and frustration finally got the better of him on the way back from another defeat at the Welsh Open, Stopping at a motorway service station, he snapped his cue.

Or at least tried to. It proved so tough that he had to eventually break it by putting his foot through it.

But Dott proved his steel with a gripping 17-15 defeat of Matthew Stevens in the semi-finals. It was the first of a series of epic Crucible victories which underlined the diminutive Scot’s ability to hold it together under pressure.

Another came in 2006 when he edged Neil Robertson 13-12 in the quarter-finals before his dramatic semi-final win over Ronnie O’Sullivan.

Dott managed to shut out what was happening around him, particularly an opponent apparently breaking down emotionally, and won all eight frames of the third session.

The final against Peter Ebdon was not pretty but it was gripping. Dott’s eventual victory was well earned and was a clear example that, in sport as in life, you only get out what you put in.

All throughout the championship Dott had used a sense of injustice at the way he was regarded in the media as a source of inspiration.

Some of this was real and some imagined, but it scarcely mattered. It fired Dotty up and he used it as a positive, not a negative.

He was in the final again in 2010 after more closely fought wins over Mark Allen and Mark Selby. Exhausted, he lost to Robertson but is one of those players nobody wants to play at the Crucible.

Again last year he proved his steel in the second round against Ali Carter, at one stage in the opening session winning three successive frames on the black.

Dott is often presented as a dour figure but I think it’s more that he’s so competitive. He has sometimes strayed into controversy, with a well publicised spat with Ian McCulloch and an unwise criticism of Steve Davis for taking toilet breaks in their first round match in 2000.

But I admire him for always speaking his mind and not hiding behind meaningless platitudes.

He’s a one-off but more importantly in a snooker sense, has the chops to stand up to the pressure at the Crucible, a place where so many have cracked.

HEROES OF THE CRUCIBLE: JACK KARNEHM

Very few lines of snooker commentary are remembered. Indeed, many would argue that most are better forgotten.

Ted Lowe’s hushed, concerned ‘no’ when Steve Davis missed the black against Dennis Taylor stands out, but the best known sentence uttered in a snooker commentary box came courtesy of Jack Karnehm.

The son of a Czechoslavkian baron, Karnehm’s own World Championship record was not to be envied. In three appearances in the qualifiers he failed to win a single frame in the 28 he played.

Billiards was his sport. He won the UK Championship at the three ball game in 1980 and lost in two world finals.

Indeed, he appeared in one of Roger Lee’s heritage room DVDs with John Pulman, in which he stated he always made a 500 break at billiards before breakfast.

“Yes, Jack,” said the laconic Pulman, “but you don’t eat until two in the afternoon.”

Karnehm had a great voice for commentary. Never demonstrative or intrusive, he kept his comments to a minimum, as was the style in the 1980s.

In 1983 he found himself commentating on the opening session of Cliff Thorburn’s second round match against Terry Griffiths at the Crucible.

At the start of the fourth frame, Thorburn fluked a red and so began the dramatic build up to his 147.

As Cliff stood over the final black, poised to make history a ball away from making the World Championship’s first maximum break, Karnehem looked down from the box and said simply: “Good luck, mate.”

There was no hype, no talking over the moment. He just put into words what everyone was thinking.

The addition of “mate” was the masterstroke. It gave the impression, rightly or not, that this happy band of snooker folk were pals, grateful that they had been given a moment in the spotlight after years of toil before the BBC showed interest in covering the game and thus happy that one of their own was about to experience such elation.

The previous year, Karnehm had also commentated on the classic semi-final between Alex Higgins and Jimmy White, one of many golden moments to which he lent his distinctive voice.

Karnehm’s other crucial contribution to the World Championship was in manufacturing the famous ‘upside down’ spectacles sported by Dennis Taylor.

Taylor was much mocked for his appearance but, of course, had the last laugh. Indeed, still is.

Karnehm’s commentary, like that of Lowe, was of its time. Television has changed. Doubtless many would say not for the better.

Karnehm commentated for the BBC from 1978 until 1993. He died in 2002 at the age of 85.

HEROES OF THE CRUCIBLE: JOHN WILLIAMS

John Williams was a forbidding presence out in the middle, a no-nonsense referee who was omnipresent as a reassuringly experienced pair of white gloves from the first Crucible in 1977 until his retirement in 2002.

Williams refereed nine Crucible finals including all three that went to deciding frame finishes.

The first of these was, of course, the 1985 showdown between Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis.

I interviewed him about this a few years ago and asked him if he had any trouble controlling the crowd. John told me there was only really one spectator he had to keep in line, the actor Bill Maynard, Selwyn Froggatt himself, or Greengrass from Heartbeat if you prefer.

Apparently Maynard became so excitable that Williams had to threaten expulsion from the hallowed arena to calm him down.

Not that Williams was ever intimidated. Far from it. He was an imposing figure who didn’t take any messing from players, in particular those with a reputation for messing.

In 1994, Alex Higgins played at the Crucible for the last time and got involved in a disagreement with Williams over where he was standing.

This was not a surprise given Higgins’s combustible personality. Indeed, a couple of years earlier he had complained to Williams at the qualifiers that he was “standing in my line of thought.”

At the Crucible, Williams stood his ground in typically uncompromising fashion: “I’ve stood here all day, Alex. Don’t tell me how to referee, you play,” he told the twice world champion.

Not that he was always first pick. When Williams appeared in the laughably poor 1984 film ‘Number One’ he was replaced for the final by Freddie ‘Parrot face’ Davies, an old school comedian not known for his mastery of the snooker rulebook.

Williams was forced to retire by the WPBSA, who at least gave him one last final in 2002, another thriller in which Peter Ebdon beat Stephen Hendry 18-17.

He came out of retirement to officiate at the World Seniors Championship last November and had barely seemed to have changed in the last decade, having found work in the interim at a funeral parlour.

Once again, and despite his absence, Williams proved himself to be a reassuringly reliable choice, at one point producing the rules from his jacket pocket when Davis and John Parrott were unaware they had been specially tweaked for the competition.

What a pro.

HEROES OF THE CRUCIBLE: BILL WERBENIUK

Bill Werbeniuk had a small cameo role in one of the most iconic of all Crucible moments.

As his friend and fellow Canadian Cliff Thorburn meticulously set about compiling the World Championship’s first maximum break in 1983, Werbeniuk stopped playing his match on the other side of the arena and peered around the partition to watch the Grinder clear up.

In doing so, Werbeniuk demonstrated the appeal of snooker as a top level sport: the quiet, still, even oppressive atmosphere. The watching. The waiting.

After the last black went down he hugged Thorburn and his opponent, Terry Griffiths, with an unalloyed joy which spoke volumes for his generosity of spirit.

Werbeniuk was gargantuan, an Oliver Hardy look-a-like who guzzled lager in quite astonishing volume. He suffered from hypoglaecaemia, which allowed him to quickly burn off the effects of alcohol.

He claimed he needed to drink to control the tremor in his arm, the result of an hereditary heart complaint. For a while the inland revenue allowed him to claim for beer as a tax deductable expense.

Before a match Werbeniuk would typically sink six pints and would generally drink one more per frame.

He once played Ian Black in a qualifying match. During one frame, there were three toilet breaks between the two players.

In 1990, Werbeniuk lost 10-1 to Nigel Bond in the world qualifiers and afterwards announced: “I’ve drunk 28 pints of extra strong lager and eight doubles whiskies and I’m still not pissed.”

Later in life he lived in a mobile home. When a friend popped round and went to wash their hands they found beer coming out of the tap.

A proud competitor in any sphere, Werbeniuk once took on a Scottish professional in a drinking contest. With Big Bill leading by 42 pints to 41, his opponent collapsed.

Werbeniuk then went to the bar for a social drink.

At the Crucible, Werbeniuk once split his already tight trousers. His embarrassment was multiplied by the fact he wasn’t wearing any underwear.

On another occasion he broke wind with considerable force, the rasping sound shattering the still calm of the Crucible.

Deadpan, Werbeniuk turned to the crowd and asked, “who did that?”

But for all this, he was a very good player who in 1979 made the first Crucible break in excess of 140, a 142.

He appeared at Sheffield ten times and reached the quarter-finals on four occasions.

Werbeniuk was a folk hero, someone snooker fans of a certain age remember fondly. He was never world champion but the Crucible would have been a lot duller without his considerable presence.

HEROES OF THE CRUCIBLE: INTRODUCTION

The televised stage of the Betfred.com World Championship starts two weeks today.

Once the draw is made on April 16 I will begin looking at the likely contenders for the title. Before all that of course there is the nerve-shredding drama of the qualifiers.

I shall be neither previewing nor reviewing the action. All that is being done with greater insight by Snookerbacker and prosnookerblog.

Instead I shall spend the next week looking back at some heroes of the Crucible.

This is not a list of greatest Crucible moments or players, as that sort of thing has been done to death.

It is instead a (personal) list of characters, some forgotten, who have made an impact at the home of snooker.

First one to follow shortly...

CRUCIBLE COUNTDOWN: WHO WILL QUALIFY?

The Betfred.com World Championship qualifiers get underway in Sheffield today, a few miles from the Crucible but, in a snooker sense, light years away from the game’s theatre of dreams.

Only 16 players are going to make it through the qualifying quagmire as legends of the sport join seasoned campaigners and new faces in trying to make it.

It’s always a nervy couple of weeks. It means so much to get to the Crucible.

There are many players at the qualifiers who have already played in the TV stages and just as many who have not.

But who is going to make it this year?

Obviously, the players seeded 17-32 are at an advantage in only having to play one match, but this won’t lessen the anxiety they feel.

There are several players in this bracket having good campaigns. Peter Ebdon has just won the China Open, although in the past tournament wins seem to have taken quite a bit out of him (when he won the China title three years ago he immediately lost in the first round at the Crucible).

Ebdon will play Sam Baird, David Grace, Alfie Burden or Jack Lisowski, all younger attacking players.

Lisowski suffered a disappointing reverse to Steve Davis on his World Championship debut last year. He has found it difficult this campaign to adjust to building on the great start he made last season.

I think Jack will be fine eventually, but if he does come through to play Ebdon it will be very tough.

Stephen Hendry is in the world qualifiers for the first time in 24 years but has only lost one qualifier all season and, over 19 frames, is going to be hard to beat.

Hendry still beats most players ranked below him, just not many ranked above him. He faces Yu Delu, Michael White or Matt Selt, all three of whom could pose him problems. Hendry, though, will be more determined than at any point this season. He has played at the last 26 Crucibles, a proud record he wants to continue.

Ken Doherty, who beat Hendry in the 1997 final, has done little of note since reaching the Australian Open semi-finals last July. He could well play an Anthony, McGill or Hamilton, in the final qualifying round.

Steve Davis and Jimmy White, the two oldest players on the circuit, each have to win two matches to qualify.

White could play Liu Chuang, who beat him 10-9 last year, before Jamie Cope in the last round. Davis could play Ben Woollaston, who is having a good season, to meet Dominic Dale.

But who is going to make it? And more particularly, who will be the surprise names who come through this year?

For the last couple of season’s we’ve had the likes of Zhang Anda and Andrew Pagett come through the pack. Of course, shock qualifiers wouldn’t be shock qualifiers if they could be predicted, but that needn't stop us trying. In years past, several unheralded players have made it. Remember Spencer Dunn? Or John Giles? Or Paul Cavney?

The Chinese contingent is quietly improving so maybe one of them can go the whole way. Tian Pengfei is a player who seems better than his world ranking and Li Yan has already qualified for this season’s UK Championship.

Kurt Maflin plays the sort of attacking game in which he doesn’t expend as much mental energy as some of the more methodical players.

Sam Craigie has produced some good results this season and Adam Duffy, who lives close to Sheffield, also has potential.

Who knows? The fun, for the fans anyway, is in the finding out.

The action starts today with the WPBSA non-tour members round, always a bit of a slog. John Parrott is the star name featuring here.

Ludicrously, there is only one match tomorrow, and that’s assuming Igor Figueiredo turns up, so the main action starts on Saturday with the last 96 round.

Good luck to all the players involved. This is like a school exam, driving test and trip to the dentist rolled into one.

There will be disappointment for many and joy for some. There will great drama along the way.

CRUCIBLE COUNTDOWN: THE RETURN OF PARROTT

The Crucible Theatre is associated with nerves and tension but John Parrott demonstrated a rare confidence when he won the world title in 1991.

“When I walked in the building on the first day I just fancied winning it,” he said years later in recalling the greatest triumph of his career.

Parrott certainly looked confident in the final, winning all seven frames of the first session against Jimmy White. He nursed this lead all the way to an 18-11 victory.

It was the fulfilment of a potential obvious since Parrott’s teenage days, when he appeared on the BBC’s Junior Pot Black sporting a chocolate brown suit which, for some reason, never caught on.

Anyone who has seen Parrott providing punditry for the BBC know him as a chirpy scouser with a ready wit but this belies his competitiveness. He was hard as nails.

He qualified for the Crucible initially in his debut season, 1983/84, and made an immediate impact by beating Tony Knowles, the fourth seed, 10-7.

He ran Dennis Taylor close in round two, losing only 13-11, and the following year took Ray Reardon the distance in the quarter-finals before losing 13-12.

By 1988, Parrott was emerging as one of the favourites. He had appeared in his first ranking final, the Mercantile Classic, and being in his 20s was well placed to take advantage of the decline of the ageing legends who still dominated.

Parrott’s career in the top flight straddled two eras: those of Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry. The three of them plus Jimmy White represented an authentic big four, players who played the modern way and who each inspired the other.

In 1989, Parrott reached the final but by the time it arrived had nothing left to give. The tournament had begun in the shadow of the Hillsborough disaster a few miles from the Crucible. Parrott was an Everton fan but had spent many afternoons at Anfield. For his first round match against Steve James he wore a black armband as a mark of respect for the dead.

The emotion had contributed to the sapping of his mental reserves and it didn’t help that he faced Davis in the final, the winner for the last two years and five times in total.

Privately, Davis was unhappy with his game but this was not reflected in his performance. He inflicted on Parrott a humiliation: an 18-3 defeat with a session to spare. It remains the greatest margin of victory in any Crucible match.

Ludicrously, Parrott was then made to play an exhibition against Davis in the final free evening session. Spirits were, to put it mildly, decidedly low.

Hendry beat him in the semi-finals in 1990 but the Scot’s title defence ended in the quarter-finals in 1991 and Parrott would face White, under pressure to win the sport’s biggest prize, in the final.

Parrott had exorcised the Davis demons in the semi-finals with a 16-10 defeat of the 1980s Crucible king and played with remarkable fluency as the final began, a century and four half centuries to blow White away.

He led 11-5 going into the final day of the championship but was still nervous. “I was never going to get any sleep. I’d have had better luck nailing a blancmange to the ceiling,” he said afterwards.

Parrott’s title defence began promisingly in 1992 when he beat Eddie Charlton 10-0 in what remains the Crucible’s only whitewash but he eventually lost 13-12 to Alan McManus in the quarter-finals, a stage he would reach six more times without going any further.

Parrott played at the Crucible every year until 2004 and again in 2006 and 2007, where he edged Davis 10-9 and held Shaun Murphy to 8-8 before losing the last five frames.

Tomorrow, Parrott gets the 2012 World Championship underway when the qualifiers begin in Sheffield.

He retired from competitive play last year but, as a WPBSA member, is entitled to enter the game’s blue riband event.

He has drawn Patrick Wallace, one of the best players in this section, and is presumably not expecting much, but such is the allure of the World Championship, such are the golden memories he, like so many, have of the tournament, that he couldn’t resist.

POST 2,000: BRING ON THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

This is the 2,000th post I have made on this blog since I started it six years ago and it seems apt that it falls just in time for the start of the Betfred.com World Championship, the qualifiers for which get underway on Thursday.

Because as much as we all follow the twists and turns of the circuit, there is nothing in snooker to compare with the 17-day soap opera that is the World Championship.

The countdown has begun. For snooker fans it’s like waiting for the last day of the school term, or Christmas, or your summer holiday.

And it’s the continuity, the familiarity, of the World Championship which is its greatest strength.

Most people reading this now will not remember the tournament when it was played under any other format. The current one came into effect in 1982 and aside from an (unnecessary) tweak of the semi-finals from best of 31 frames to best of 33 in 1997 has remained constant.

Every player in the last 30 years has faced the same test, the same tensions, the same pressure.

The tournament has not made any concessions to the modern age or the lowest common denominator. There are no silly gimmicks like shot-clocks or, God forbid, a ‘power zone.’

It is snooker as it should be: raw, hard and demanding of its competitors the very highest levels of skill, concentration, discipline, patience, nerve and stamina.

The long matches are what make it so special. There is time for so many shifts of momentum, for doubt to creep in, for implosions to happen. There is time for heroic comebacks and bitterly disappointing collapses. There is time for reputations to be cemented or destroyed. There is time for redemption for past failures.

As Barry Hearn himself has said, “it’s a bizarre format but it works, so why change it?”

The World Championship is a long slog, and not just for the players. At the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield each year a community of dedicated people come together to make it happen. Most are not household names but snooker could not function without them.

There’s the officials, the table fitters, the TV crew, the journalists, the hospitality staff, sundry backstage personnel and, of course, the fans.

For many, April in Sheffield represents an annual pilgrimage to the sport’s own Mecca. It is a chance to renew old friendships and experience the greatest snooker show on earth, to be part of it.

I first attended the Crucible 22 years ago. I’ve worked on the last 15 World Championships and commentated on the last six, but my World Championship memories stretch back much further.

We all have our favourite matches and moments. In the 1980s, snooker was everywhere. The BBC showed hour upon hour upon hour and it chiefly revolved around whether anyone could stop Steve Davis winning.

In the 1990s, I remember following the drama of the Hendry-White era hoping against hope that Jimmy would finally do it.

I had nothing against Hendry. I respected him and came to respect him even more after getting to know him. But it was easier to support a man with obvious flaws against a man who seemed to have none.

I was there when Hendry won his seventh world title. Indeed, I had to hold his cue while he did a radio interview afterwards.

I couldn’t move. I thought, if I somehow break this I will surely be taken to a place of execution (it was of course broken a few years later by less reverential baggage handlers).

That was a great tournament. I remember standing in the photographer’s booth as Ronnie O’Sullivan missed the pink on 134, his look of resigned anguish.

He played his part in a new era for the championship, which was dominated by him and his contemporaries, John Higgins and Mark Williams.

In Mark I saw someone for whom winning and losing was not everything. Even when he won the title for the first time in 2000 he was measured in his celebrations.

Higgins always had his family with him and they knew how to celebrate. When he won for the first time in 1998 he seemed certain to win several times more. As it transpires he has done, but few thought it would take nine years between first win and second.

For television viewers, many moments have become iconic: Alex Higgins beckoning his wife and baby on to the stage, Cliff Thorburn sinking to his knees after his maximum, Dennis Taylor’s black, O’Sullivan’s record 147...

But many of our memories are more prosaic. For some reason I can’t shift the image of Terry Griffiths knocking the Embassy globe from its moorings in the 1988 final.

There was a strange anticipation on each Thursday of the tournament while waiting for the BBC’s ‘Snooker Break’ segment in the days when features were limited to when there wasn’t any play going on.

It’s almost a cliché to become nostalgic for Shot of the Championship and the final interval musical pieces but they were as much a part of watching on TV as the matches.

Since working on the tournament, my perspective on it has become less about the snooker and more about the experience.

When I started in the Crucible pressroom it was like an ashtray: full of smoke, all free courtesy of the sponsor, with a complimentary bar much patronised by the journalists.

It was an incredible buzz to have gone from watching the event on TV to being there, inside the ropes, part of the backstage drama, which was every bit as compelling as the snooker itself.

Being at the Crucible for 17 days is like being in the Big Brother house. You are effectively hermetically sealed off from outside reality. Everything exists in its own bubble.

The days are long and people get bored. I’ve been involved in many childish pranks backstage to pass the time. I’ve been wildly drunk after hours. I’ve had far too little sleep. I’ve eaten badly. I’ve had pointless arguments. I’ve listened to the same old stories and same old jokes. I’ve dashed to press conferences to hear tales of joy or despair. I’ve bashed out stories which seemed incredibly important at the time but which now look rather desperate.

I remember the Saturday afternoon of the semi-finals in 2003. Paul Hunter led Ken Doherty 15-9. A colleague of mine had gone off to do football and landed me with his newspapers to do, with the cheery comment that “it’ll all be over in good time for deadline.”

Of course, Ken came back to win 17-16, leaving me scrambling round trying to get the various stories sent, juggling quotes and then doing full rewrites.

I’m sure I complained bitterly at the time but these are the afternoons that get the blood flowing, and the graciousness with which Ken won and Paul lost was special to witness.

These days I commentate for Eurosport. This is a different experience because it demands full concentration.

Not every match is a classic by any means but they each contribute to the overall narrative. There are many threads to be pulled together until the champion is crowned.

Good luck to all those starting out on the road to the Crucible this week. The qualifiers themselves contain much of the intrigue associated with the final stages. To be at the Crucible or to miss out and know it’s going on without you is one of the season’s big disparities in emotion.

There will be much heartache before the night of May 7, much excitement too.

There is nothing in snooker to match the World Championship and long may it continue to entertain, to enthral and to thrive.

EBDON'S MARATHON VICTORY

Peter Ebdon’s dramatic capture of the China Open title in Beijing today was reminiscent of those of Doug Mountjoy at the 1988 UK Championship and Jimmy White at the 2004 Players Championship.

Like Mountjoy and White at the time of their respective triumphs, Ebdon is in his 40s, dropping down the rankings and apparently on the wane.

He had done nothing all season to suggest he could win this title, failing to advance beyond a last 32 of any of the other major tournaments.

The first session was a grind despite Ebdon making two centuries. Only six of the scheduled nine frames were played and the last of these was touch and go for a while.

The reason for the pull-off was to “give the players a break” but it strikes me that if they wanted a break they should have played more quickly.

The third session of the famous 1985 world final ended at 6.20pm. The final session began at 7pm and ended just after midnight. Imagine what time it would have finished with two extra frames to play. Would the fabled 18.5 million still have been tuned in at 1.30am?

Not that this was the fault of Maguire. Ebdon knocked him out of his rhythm early on although Maguire’s discipline at the table did not waver in the opening session.

He staged a terrific comeback in the evening and started to score more heavily but just when Ebdon looked like he’d burned out, he got it together again.

The decider wasn’t particularly pretty but Ebdon, to his credit, held his nerve to get over the winning line.

It’s his ninth ranking title and his first since he surprisingly won this tournament three years ago.

He sets a new record for the longest gap between winning his first and most recent ranking title.

This was a very different form of snooker to the swift, punch and counter punch heavy scoring of the UK Championship final.

But snooker’s strength lies in its capacity to deliver a variety of matches, performances and styles.

Today’s final wouldn’t have been to everyone’s taste but many others would have loved the slow burning drama of it all.

Ebdon today recorded his 300th competitive century, only the fifth player to achieve this feat.

It capped a remarkable week for him in which he has beaten five top 16 players and unexpectedly returned to the game’s winners’ circle.

He is in many ways an eccentric character and lacks the flair of some other top players. But, my word, what a trier and what a performer under pressure.

MAGUIRE V EBDON

Well done if you predicted today's China Open final line-up before a ball was struck in Beijing. Stephen Maguire v Peter Ebdon was, I suspect, not a widely tipped finale but both these players are proven winners, not least of this tournament.

The 2008 China Open gave Maguire the last of his four major ranking titles. I'm sure he feels four years has been too long to wait for a fifth, although it's not like there's been a tournament every week in this time.

Maguire has remained consistent for the last four years and come within touching distance of titles - as in Wales last year and Germany this season - without quite winning one.

Ebdon won his eighth world ranking title at the 2009 China Open. Then, as now, he was badly out of form going into the tournament but found some inspiration.

It makes a difference when you've done it before. It means you know it is in you somewhere.

Ebdon digs deeper than most and his stamina is remarkable given the way he plays.

Snooker would be boring if every player had the same style or same personality. It is the variety, the richness, the multitude of personalities which keeps it fascinating.

What we've seen this season is that the game doesn't rest on two or three players to keep it interesting. With more tournaments, more players have a chance to shine and are taking it.

If Ebdon wins today he will set a new record for the longest gap between first and most recent world ranking titles.

Maguire, I feel, will need to get going early on and score as heavily as he did against Stephen Lee yesterday. In other words, keep his more methodical opponent away from the table and not let him dictate the style and pace of the final.

THE FINAL FOUR

Well it just gets better and better for Stephen Lee, who today contests his fourth world ranking event semi-final from the last five tournaments.

That silky smooth cue action everyone raves about was again in evidence yesterday as he made two successive centuries to hit back from 2-0 down to Judd Trump and level at 2-2.

Tension came into the match thereafter and mistakes were made, but Lee eventually finished off his 5-3 win with a 96.

His turnaround in fortunes is remarkable and he has been the best player of 2012 thus far. Lee didn't forget how to play snooker. All he needed were more opportunities and confidence, both of which he now has in great abundance.

Stephen Maguire pulled off the narrowest possible victory over Ronnie O'Sullivan, 5-4 on a re-spotted black, which he fluked by missing the double and landing the treble.

O'Sullivan took it better than most but must have been disappointed to have missed his own golden chance to win the match, when he lost ideal position from blue to last red and failed to pot it.

Ding Junhui, to the delight of course of his home fans, reached the semi-finals with a 5-2 win over Ali Carter.

Ding turns 25 tomorrow. A second China Open title would be an ideal way to celebrate but he first has to contend with the brutally methodical Peter Ebdon, whose powers of focus and determination were in full display during his 5-3 win over Neil Robertson.

This was not a pretty match to watch. Robertson failed to make the most of his chances and Ebdon gradually wore him down.

The game's hard men deserve special recognition. Top level sport is supposed to be about driving yourself on, pushing your barriers, bettering yourself and achieving excellence. It's about refusing to give up.

So even though Ebdon's playing style may not be to everyone's taste he should at least receive credit for the immense effort he puts in.

Consider his last three victims: Matthew Stevens, John Higgins and Neil Robertson.

Not a bad hat-trick of wins.

THE KNIVES ARE OUT

It's ten years since Peter Ebdon won the world title but his determination has not waned and yesterday he pulled off one of his best results for some time.

Ebdon's 5-4 defeat of world champion John Higgins must have been satisfying after a poor campaign in which his top 32 place has been placed under threat.

He is a player who has always worked hard on preparation. Physical and mental fitness have been almost an obsession.

Now, Ebdon has become a vegan after watching a film, Forks Over Knives, which apparently blames eating meat for, well, pretty much everything.

Good luck to him if he believes it makes a difference. He will probably have to produce an even better performance today if he is to devour Neil Robertson, whose flowing coiffure somewhat overcompensates for Ebdon's more sparsely populated pate.

First up is a battle of two of the form players this season: Judd Trump v Stephen Lee.

A few years ago, Lee played superbly to beat Trump in the world qualifiers and afterwards said he hoped the defeat would stay with his young opponent for some time.

I think it's fair to say it's a distant memory for Trump after the year he has had, but Lee is playing some of the best snooker of his career right now and will surely be a serious threat to the defending champion.

Ronnie O'Sullivan beat Stephen Maguire in a thrilling German Masters final a few weeks back and was the model of professionalism in again defeating Mark Williams 5-1 yesterday.

Maguire is another player whom O'Sullivan respects and he has only lost to him three times in 17 meetings.

The fourth quarter-final pits Ding Junhui against Ali Carter after Ding's walkover against Mark Selby.

Wisely, the world no.1 does not want to make his neck problem worse ahead of the World Championship.

The neck and shoulders is an area in which snooker players do seem to suffer, some very seriously. Hopefully Selby's injury is only a minor problem.

SUPER THURSDAY

The manner of Ronnie O’Sullivan’s victory over Marcus Campbell in the first round of the China Open yesterday was a kind of microcosm of his career.

He shifted from being maddeningly frustrating to sublimely brilliant as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

He should have lost. Campbell had a great chance to lead 4-0 but missed a pink and O’Sullivan seemed to rediscover his enthusiasm for winning. He doesn't look well but can win tournaments even when not at full fitness.

Ronnie splits opinion in a way I find pretty curious as I neither hate him nor think he’s a living deity. But nobody can deny his box office appeal. In every match there is something to keep audiences glued to the screen and this is why he remains the biggest draw in the sport.

Today he plays Mark Williams, who hasn’t beaten him in a world ranking event for ten years.

I suppose this has to end at some time but whenever these two play the match oozes with mutual respect and perhaps there is too much on Williams’s part.

He believes O’Sullivan is still the best player in the game and maybe this affects his own mental preparation.

Williams was so convinced that O’Sullivan wouldn’t travel to Beijing that he stated on Twitter he would bare his backside in Burton’s shop window if he did.

The good news for those wishing to be spared exposure to the Welshman’s posterior is that Burton’s themselves may not be so willing to comply with this wager.

Away from all this, Ali Carter completed what must be a morale boosting 5-4 win over Dominic Dale.

Despite not playing competitively for a while due to illness, Carter started with a century. His top 16 place is under threat and his enthusiasm for snooker low. But winning tends to remind a player of why they chose to play the game in the first place.

Carter now faces Lu Ning, the 18 year-old wildcard who produced a sensational display yesterday to beat Shaun Murphy 5-2.

Forget the rights and wrongs of wildcards, which have been endlessly debated, not least by me: this was a world class performance to stand with any other in this tournament.

From 2-2, Lu made two successive centuries and finished off the clinching frame in a single visit of 68. He demonstrated poise, guts and panache. Murphy sportingly led the applause at the end.

China has been waiting for a bona fide challenger to Ding Junhui. Without getting too carried away, it may have found one.

Today promises to be a thrill ride full of big names and potentially brilliant snooker.

It starts with O’Sullivan v Williams and Judd Trump against Stuart Bingham. Later, Neil Robertson plays Stephen Hendry and Mark Selby takes on Ding Junhui. World champion John Higgins doesn’t even get a TV table for his match with Peter Ebdon.

This is shaping up to be one of the best tournaments of the season.

EDIT: Mark Selby has withdrawn because of a neck injury. It is understood Selby doesn't want to exacerbate the injury ahead of the World Championship.

THE HOLY TRINITY

Ding Junhui, roared on by a sizeable, partisan crowd, completed a great comeback from 4-0 down to beat Ben Woollaston 5-4 in the first round of the China Open in Beijing yesterday.

Woollaston played well to get to four frames but four isn’t five in a best of nine. He could have done without the interval, which forced him to spend 15 minutes dwelling on the prospect of clinching the best TV win of his career.

Intervals were introduced into snooker for one reason and one reason only: so that the venues could sell drinks. They were never intended to help the players and in Woollaston’s case did the exact opposite, but we’ll never know if he would have won had there not been one.

Woollaston claimed after his defeat that the rowdy atmosphere “would never happen in the UK.” Maybe Ding could tell him about the 2007 Masters final at Wembley Conference Centre, where he was barracked by hostile sections of the crowd.

Personally I’m glad to see a crowd. People have sneered for long enough about the ‘myth’ of the Chinese snooker boom (people who have never been to China) but I would have thought yesterday’s pictures were proof of the acclaim in which Ding is held.

Today we have the best three players of the last 15 years in action: John Higgins, Ronnie O’Sullivan and Mark Williams.

Between them they have won 65 world ranking titles, including nine world titles. I suppose this holy snooker trinity are approaching veteran status but they are all still formidable on their respective days.

Higgins is yet to win a title this season. Rory McLeod is a stubborn, methodical opponent who the Scot only just scraped past at the UK Championship last December. It’s a day for patience and digging in but Higgins’s confidence can hardly be high after his performance against Jamie Jones at the PTC Grand Finals.

O’Sullivan has travelled to Beijing after missing Haikou and Galway. He also plays a tough-as-old-boots opponent in the shape of Marcus Campbell, a player who has quietly established himself as a member of the world’s top 32.

If O’Sullivan gets in and scores he could well win easily. If Campbell manages to frustrate him he may not.

Williams seems to have gone off the boil somewhat since losing 10-9 to Mark Selby in the Shanghai Masters final last September. He would doubtless argue that that defeat is not the reason for his form tailing off, and it might not be, but he doesn’t seem as sharp at the moment as he was at this point last year. Nobody seems to be tipping him for victory at the Crucible.

Williams, who has won six world ranking titles in Asia, including three in China, faces Jin Long, easily the best of the Chinese wildcards, who outlasted Fergal O’Brien yesterday.

These three legends of snooker can’t go on forever but neither are they going to disappear overnight. Perhaps they are all in slight decline but when you are as good as John, Ronnie and Mark have been then you have much further to fall than most.

JUDD V JIMMY

Jimmy White didn't play great in beating Syrian Omar Alkojah in the wildcard round of the China Open yesterday but he got the result, which is all you can ask for in this tricky, palpably unfair extra match the eight lowest ranked qualifiers have to play for no additional financial reward.

Michael Holt and Jamie Jones did not fair so well, each beaten by Chinese opponents.

White now faces Judd Trump, the latest in the lineage of flair players to which the Whirlwind himself belongs.

He followed in the footsteps of Alex Higgins, his great friend, and is taking inspiration from the Hurricane in the year which marks to 40th anniversary of his first world title triumph and the 30th of his second.

White has cufflinks inscribed with an image of Higgins which he hopes will spur him on to qualify for the Crucible.

Trump represents a significant test. It was in Beijing 12 months ago that he broke through and is a big favourite to win again today.

White will surely have to produce one of his best performances on TV for some time to cause an upset.

His old foe, Stephen Hendry, won an entertaining first round match yesterday against Martin Gould, who will be thinking about the red he missed in the decider, effectively for match, all the way back to blighty.

Had it not been at such a vital time he probably wouldn't have missed it, but herein lies the fascination with sport: who will hold their nerve when it really matters?

Hendry still has an aura, particularly for a player like Gould who grew up watching him. Beating him live on TV in front of a large crowd is still a big deal. This obviously added to the pressure he was feeling.

I was amused to see Stephen say afterwards that his last remaining ambition was to win a major title in China. He did do when he won the 1990 Asian Open but I guess when you've won as much as he has you forget these things.

The chief talking point though was Neil Robertson's curly hair, his natural look when he's not got his hair straightening gear.

The last time I saw a mane so lustrous was on the cowardly lion in the Wizard of Oz. The difference, however, is that Neil has bags of courage.

WHEN THE WIND BLOWS

James Warren White will be 50 in a few weeks time. There is only one player older than him on the professional circuit, a certain Steve Davis.

To have lasted as long as he has is testament to Jimmy's love of snooker. You have to love it as much as he does to keep on going despite a myriad of setbacks.

It would be a shame if historians of the future came to define White's career purely by the six world finals he failed to win because the fact is that despite these disappointments he has still won far more than most could ever wish for.

He would admit he didn't always dedicate himself to snooker as much as he needed to in the years when the game came easy but he is working hard now to prolong his career, and is, all things considered, doing pretty well.

He remains a member of the top 48 in the seedings. He will have to win two matches to qualify for the Crucible, the same number as he won to reach Beijing.

Today in the wildcard round of the China Open he plays Omar Alkojah of Syria, a country which is currently going through unimaginable horrors.

White is a big favourite and would play Judd Trump, the latest in the lineage of flair players of which the Whirlwind is part, in the first round.

White keeps himself busy on the exhibition circuit, where he remains a big draw. If you see him play in this environment you'd wonder why he isn't still in the top 16 but of course in matches there is intense pressure because it is here where it really counts.

White's old adversary, Stephen Hendry, is also in action today in one of two last 32 matches.

It's 20 years since Hendry came from 14-8 down to beat White 18-14 in the 1992 world final, a gripping contest which would be taught in schools were snooker on the curriculum.

That was 20 years ago, though. Hendry is now, like White, fighting to stay in contention.

Martin Gould is the sort of player he won't mind playing because he knows it will be an open, attacking game.

Neil Robertson beat Jamie Cope to win his first world ranking title, the 2006 Grand Prix.

It's no great shock Robertson has won several more since but is perhaps surprising that Cope is still waiting to join the game's winners' circle.

An hereditary condition which causes him to shake in his head and right arm has obviously affected not just his form but also his confidence. A win over Robertson, one of the players of the season, would provide a huge injection of self belief.

Today's other TV match pits Peter Ebdon against Lu Haotian, a 14 year-old who the Chinese obviously have high hopes for.

He doubtless plays many hours of snooker each week but Ebdon, with his all round knowledge, represents an entirely different form of snooker education.

Eurosport will be showing all four TV matches live on its two channels at 7.30am and 12.30pm BST.

BACK TO BEIJING

And so it's back to China for the longest running of the current Asian ranking events, the China Open in Beijing.

This was first staged (as the China International) in 1999 and ran until 2002. It disappeared due to lack of funds but returned in 2005 as a one-year deal.

Ding Junhui, as a wildcard, won the title and lit the blue touch paper for the snooker boom that has resulted in five Chinese ranking events next season.

The tournament has long since outlived the need for wildcards but a World Snooker bod explained to me in Galway - rather trenchantly, although we'd both had a drink - that without a guaranteed amount of Chinese players the sponsors will not cough up the dough to underwrite these tournaments.

I hope Jimmy White beats Omar Alkoraj (who is Syrian, not Chinese) because he will then play Judd Trump: one generation of left-handed flair player against another.

When Trump flew to Beijing this time last year he was barely known outside snooker circles.

Even within them there were those saying he couldn't possibly be all that because, by the age of 21, he had had the effrontery not to be a world beater.

But all that changed as he allied his sensational potting game with mature safety to go all the way to the title.

A few weeks later he was in the World Championship final. He is now UK champion and world no.3.

He has over 80,000 followers on Twitter and has enjoyed an increased media profile. He is great news for our sport.

I'm glad that the China Open now comes before the World Championship qualifiers because in previous years it has found itself overshadowed.

The Crucible draw is usually out by now and players who failed to qualify have been down in the dumps and have produced performances to match. All that can wait: the China Open is a major tournament in its own right and deserves to be treated as such.

Thankfully World Snooker has listened to common sense and scheduled two first round matches for day one so as to start the tournament with some big names.

One of them is Neil Robertson, who plays Jamie Cope. Robertson seemed to me to be dog-tired at Crondon Park last week after a very busy and successful season. He is also in the middle of moving house, with the incumbent stress that that involves.

He always gives it everything but may welcome the break after China to prepare for the Crucible (in fairness, he was also playing with a new tip, which didn't help).

Similarly, Stephen Lee is on a roll but flew straight from Galway to Hong Kong for a series of exhibitions and there is a danger that he could hit a wall (and I don't mean the Great Wall).

The other first round match on Monday features Martin Gould against Stephen Hendry.

Gould's form has been poor of late and it seems to me he has suffered from a curious syndrome that affects many players when they join the top 16.

These guys spend years chasing down a place in the elite group and it seems that when they get there they find it hard to mentally adjust.

It's all too easy to start looking over your shoulder, the hunter becoming the hunted and all that.

Hendry played well to beat Gould at this season's Australian Open, but you never know when Hendry will play well these days.

He won the first ranking event staged in China in 1990 and still has an aura about him, but this counts for little if he can't produce the goods.

There's no word yet on whether Ronnie O'Sullivan and Ali Carter will play due to their respective illnesses.

One thing I do know is this: any player who tweets about how boring Beijing is needs to take a long look at themselves.

I've been there a few times and it's a fascinating city, full of history and with plenty to see. Go there with an open mind and you might be pleasantly surprised by how much you enjoy it.

PTCs TO GLOUCESTER

The decision to stage all four UK PTC events at the South West Snooker Academy in Gloucester next season makes sense for several reasons.

Firstly, the SWSA is a first class facility run by snooker-loving people who have literally built it from scratch.

Second, the SWSA will pay a fee to World Snooker to stage the events, thus swelling the association’s coffers.

Third, they have more tables than the World Snooker venue in Sheffield, so there will not be the horrible logjam where matches are going on at midnight.

Fourth, there are facilities for paying spectators, including a first class arena.

These events will therefore feel more like proper tournaments for players and snooker fans alike.

BERT DEMARCO DIES

Bert Demarco, a former professional and hugely important figure in Scottish snooker, has died. He was 87.

Demarco won the Scottish amateur title five times and turned professional in 1980.

He promoted the original Scottish Professional Championship and was Stephen Hendry’s first round victim in this tournament in 1985, the first pro title Hendry won.

Demarco retired from the circuit in 1993 but it was off the table where his influence was most significant.

He opened Marcos in Edinburgh in the 1970s. It was Scotland’s first commercial snooker club and as the game gained national currency through TV coverage, he was in a position to expand his empire with further clubs and properties.

Over the years, many Scottish players were to benefit from his facilities and wisdom.

Four years ago, Demarco recalled his own humble beginnings, saying: “I first played on a full-size table in Brechin when I was 11 years old and my auntie gave me a box to stand on so I could practice.

“I think they just wanted me out of the way, but from there I caught the bug.”

When Marcos closed in 2008, Demarco gave away all ten full-sized tables to local schools and youth groups to encourage fresh talent.

It was a typical gesture by a man who loved snooker and wanted to nurture young players. He wasn’t a household name in snooker like the best known players are but, in Scotland, he was a legend whose legacy lives on.

LEE'S GLEE

Stephen Lee’s capture of the Betfair PTC Grand Finals in Galway last night was the final proof that he has fully returned to form in the last year.

His 4-0 defeat of Neil Robertson in the final was hard fought and clearly very satisfying. It was Lee’s fifth world ranking title, six years after he won his fourth.

Lee came through to the professional ranks in 1992 during a golden Blackpool summer which also saw Ronnie O’Sullivan, John Higgins and Mark Williams start out on the road to the big time.

His career has not been as successful as those of these three world champions but it has been more successful than most.

Everyone raves about his silky smooth cue action but it has taken a lot of effort to make the game appear this effortless.

He credits his turnaround in fortunes to getting back in the top 16, which he believes happened because of the dramatic increase in playing opportunities since Barry Hearn took over the reins of World Snooker.

“I couldn’t be doing with six tournaments a year,” Lee said. “If you lost in the first you were counting down the other five.”

Since the turn of 2012 Lee has reached the semi-finals of the German Masters, quarters of the Welsh Open, final of the World Open and now won the Players Tour Championship.

And there’s no rest for the wicked. He is due to fly to China today to undertake a series of exhibitions ahead of the China Open next week.

After a spell in the doldrums he is once again enjoying life as a snooker player, more so now that he’s won another big tournament.

Robertson was meanwhile typically gracious both in the press conference and backstage, despite losing his first TV final from ten played.

The Aussie is a naturally cheerful sort of person. He always manages to look for the positives in any situation and take them with him.

So instead of leaving Ireland upset at a final whitewash he was merely pleased for Lee and happy with his own game a month ahead of the World Championship.

Robertson has flown over his brother, Mark, to help him prepare properly for the Crucible having by his own admission failed to do so last year.

Without elaborating, he described the run in to his world title defence 12 months ago as “typical Neil Robertson.”

He failed to get scoring last night and having lost the 47-minute opening frame was always on the back foot, whereas he had started his previous two matches with centuries in the first frame and got his opponents under early pressure.

So well done to Lee and a big thank you to the people of Galway, who made it such a memorable week for the members of snooker’s travelling circus.

It is such a friendly place and everyone was in agreement that snooker should return, in some form, very soon.

STARS OF THE SHOW

They were supposed to be the warm-up act for the main attraction but Andrew Higginson and Jamie Jones put on a real show for the Galway crowd in the absence of Ronnie O’Sullivan at the Betfair PTC Grand Finals last night.

Higginson won 4-3 with a 95 break in the decider which was all the more creditable considering Jones had stolen the sixth frame by sinking a terrific long black.

O’Sullivan had withdrawn yesterday morning, citing illness. It transpired he had got on the plane, was said to be feeling ill, was told he could not sit by his friend and got off again.

I don’t dispute O’Sullivan’s glandular fever has left him feeling drained. I’m told he was admitted to hospital after the Welsh Open.

But there was widespread anger backstage that he withdrew on the day of his match, giving organisers no time to reschedule and leaving the paying public short-changed.

I myself spoke to two snooker fans who had taken the day off work and come from across Ireland to watch O’Sullivan play. Their specific comments could only be printed after the watershed.

However, World Snooker will no longer be giving players who withdraw because of illness ranking points and prize money, even if they have a doctor’s note. From now on, if you don’t turn up, you get nothing.

This is of course harsh on a player like Ali Carter, whose battles with Crohn’s disease are well documented.

However, there is a mechanism, introduced when Paul Hunter was seriously ill, by which a player can apply to have his world ranking protected if he is unable to compete.

Xiao Guodong meanwhile turned up with a broken bone in his hand, made a century in the first frame against Judd Trump and beat him 4-2.

Perhaps subconsciously Xiao did not expect too much of himself this week because of the injury. He’s now in the quarter-finals.

Jones is on his way home but good luck to him in the future. He tweeted after the match how much he had enjoyed Galway and the people here.

This is the sort of young player the game needs: grateful for his opportunities and humble in victory or defeat.

JACK'S PROGRESS

Jack Lisowski reached the second round of the PTC Grand Finals in Galway today despite being told last month that his place in the tournament was not guaranteed.

Lisowski finished tied 24th with Michael White on the PTC order of merit but believed he had qualified because he had done the better of the two in PTC12, which was to be used to determine the standings in the event of a tie.

“World Snooker phoned my manager and said I’d have to play a play-off,” said Lisowski, after beating Barry Hawkins 4-3.

“I texted Matt from Prosnookerblog because he’s a fountain of knowledge and he texted straight back to say, no, it was clear in the PTC entry pack that I’d qualified.

“They wanted me to play an extra game before the Welsh Open qualifiers. I feel sorry for Michael but I’m delighted to be here.”

World Snooker said that the rule was not as clearly defined as it could have been.

Lisowski described his season as “rubbish.” He added: “I’ve been guarding points. I’ve had the wrong mentality but I’ve sorted that out now.”

The 20 year-old led 2-0 and 3-2 before Shootout champion Hawkins forced the decider.

From his initial chance, Lisowski knocked in a good long red and made 99 to go forward to a meeting with Neil Robertson tomorrow.

GALWAY BOUND

Ireland has long been a favourite stopping off point for the snooker circuit.

The old Irish Masters, particularly at Goffs, was one of the highlights of the season, mixing great snooker with great hospitality.

Now Galway becomes the latest Irish city to host a major tournament. The PTC Grand Finals, sponsored by Betfair, are the culmination of the marathon slog of 12 PTCs which packed the calendar earlier in the season.

Only 24 players – less than a quarter of the circuit – will contest the final stages, which means any player who has qualified can feel pretty good about themselves.

There’s a £70,000 first prize on offer but also valuable ranking points that those not in the field cannot accrue.

And the line-up is an intriguing mix of star names, established faces and lesser lights.

The only big names who haven’t qualified are Mark Williams, Mark Allen and Shaun Murphy, who won the title 12 months ago.

There’s reward for players such as Ben Woollaston, Andrew Higginson, Michael Holt and Tom Ford, PTC winners from lower down the rankings.

There is just one table, so everyone has the chance to shine. My only issue is the length of the final, which like every other PTC match is best of seven.

I think it should be best of 11 minimum to distinguish its importance and give it a bit of prestige (Murphy’s 4-0 victory over Martin Gould last year was over very quickly).

Still, here’s to Galway. There will be many other distractions during the week: the Cheltenham festival, St. Patrick’s celebrations and England v Ireland in the Six Nations most prominently.

But ticket sales for the weekend are reportedly good and hopefully the Irish snooker fraternity will once again turn out to support the climax of the PTC campaign.