LET THE ACTION BEGIN

So we’re ready, then.

All the talking, the predictions, the conjecture, can stop. The Betfred.com World Championship is about to begin.

This is snooker at its best: gimmick free. The World Championship stands alone as the last bastion of what championship snooker should be about, unsullied by cheap attempts to dumb it down.  

As it has been for the last three decades the World Championship is 17 days of lengthy matches, slow burning drama, great potting, big breaks, unexpected misses, joy, despair, elation, heartbreak, good luck, bad luck and, for one of the 32 players involved, a life changing triumph.

It’s tough, really tough. You need skill, stamina, bottle and much more to become champion. You need belief and mental fortitude. You need heart and nerve.

For the eventual winner, a place in the history books awaits. For everyone else there is only disappointment.

The World Championship existed for 50 years before moving to Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre in 1977 but the Crucible era coincided with snooker’s television age and is thus awash with memories inescapably stitched through time in the grand tapestry that forms the history of the sport.

Joe Davis was the first champion 85 years ago. He used half of the original entry fees to purchase the silver trophy which is still presented to this day.

Little did he know what he started. Colour television brought the tournament into living rooms and illuminated moments forever frozen in time.

Even those who don’t remember them first time round can see them now: Barry Hearn barrelling into Steve Davis after his young charge won his first world title in 1981. Alex Higgins tearfully beckoning his wife and baby on to the stage in 1982. Cliff Thorburn sinking to his knees after his 147 in 1983. Dennis Taylor holding his cue aloft after his black ball defeat of Davis in 1985. Joe Johnson’s smile, equal parts joy and disbelief, as he swept away Davis in 1986.

Into the 1990s and the remarkable Stephen Hendry-Jimmy White rivalry, the emergence of John Higgins, Mark Williams and Ronnie O’Sullivan, whose 1997 maximum remains an audacious exhibition of sheer skill.

We had drama too in the 2000s, Peter Ebdon winning a decider against Hendry, Ken Doherty’s 2003 adventure, Shaun Murphy triumphing as a qualifier.

Just last year Judd Trump enthralled as the new kid on the baize, threatening the old guard with his incredible potting, the latest in a long line of players who have lit up the Crucible stage.

Close your eyes and remember. And then open them and enjoy the 2012 edition, because more memories are about to be created.

There are a number of players going into this year’s tournament with every reason to feel they can scoop the £250,000 first prize come May 7 after a season in which the major prizes have been shared around.

There are nine players in the field who have won the title before. Three players are experiencing the Crucible’s unique and oppressive atmosphere for the first time.

If you are going to Sheffield to watch in person then you will be part of the experience first hand. Everyone else can enjoy it on TV and online.

The BBC has coverage all day on the red button (for those with satellite television) and live terrestrial coverage in the afternoons. All matches are live on the BBC website for UK residents.

Eurosport has blanket coverage across its various channels and on the Eurosport player.

The tournament is also live on Chinese TV and on liveworldsnooker.tv apart from those areas with TV coverage.

Wherever you are watching, I trust you will enjoy it.

It’s been another great season of snooker, featuring more action than ever, but there is only one World Championship. This is the ultimate test for any player.

There’s nothing more to be said. Let the drama begin.

DO YOU REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME?

There are three debutants at the Crucible this year.

Jamie Jones has maintained his excellent recent form. Cao Yupeng is one of a group of emerging Chinese players starting to make strides. And of course there’s young Luca Brecel, just 17 and the youngest ever Crucible competitor.

Debutants rarely do well. Consider the following list of great names for starters: Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry, Jimmy White, Ken Doherty, Ronnie O’Sullivan, John Higgins, Neil Robertson and Shaun Murphy. All of them lost in the first round on their Crucible debuts.

However, 32 Crucible debutants have won their first match, including Peter Ebdon, Mark Allen, John Parrott and Mark Williams. The last of them to do so was Liang Wenbo in 2008.

It’s nerve-wracking playing at the Crucible for everyone but particularly when it’s your first time there. You will have seen it on television and may have been to watch, but being out in the middle, getting used to the claustrophobic atmosphere generated by this Sheffield theatre-in-the-round, is something you only understand if you experience it first hand.

Doherty says he was 4-0 down on his debut before he could concentrate properly. His fellow Irishman Fergal O’Brien, however, made a century in his very first frame, still the only player to do so on debut.

Terry Griffiths of course won the title on his debut in 1979. It seems unlikely, very unlikely, that Jones, Cao or Brecel will do that. They each have a tough match in the first round.

It’s easy to say they should just enjoy it, but nobody enjoys losing, particularly by a big margin.

What each of them want, aside from obviously winning, is to acquit themselves well, to give a performance consistent with that which got them through the qualifiers.

They know there is suddenly more focus on them than there has ever been. It’s a chance to shine: exciting but also forbidding.

Quite a few promising professionals have never played at the Crucible. This trio’s qualification brings the total number to have played there since 1977 to 182, not that many really.

You never know when you’ll be back. Many players have never been back.

So good luck to our three newcomers in 2012.

CRUCIBLE COUNTDOWN: MORE FIRST ROUND PREDICTIONS

And so my first round preview concludes with more predictions...

MARK WILLIAMS v LIU CHUANG

I would never claim to have any great insight into the inner workings of a snooker player’s mind but it seems to me that Williams put a great deal into getting back to world no.1 and has now tailed off a bit, perhaps because the only way after accomplishing what was a terrific feat was down.

Since losing the Shanghai Masters final last September, Williams hasn’t looked the same. He’s still dangerous of course but his performances haven’t been as impressive as they were last season.

So perhaps this one could be the big first round shock that nobody can see coming. Well, if it is, I haven’t seen it coming either.

Liu has done really well to qualify. He has that deadpan way about him which makes his emotions hard to read.

But his lack of experience must surely be a factor. He played at the Crucible four years ago but doesn’t have much table time under his belt in the big arenas.

Williams doesn’t seem to rate his own chances of progressing much further but I think he’ll come through this one.

PREDICTION: Williams to win 10-5

RONNIE O’SULLIVAN v PETER EBDON

Make no mistake: this is a rotten draw for O’Sullivan. However, it isn’t a good one for Ebdon either.

Aside from his debut in 1993, when he was just 17, O’Sullivan has only lost twice in the first round and he played great both times: five centuries against David Gray in 2000 and a maximum against Marco Fu in 2003.

All the talk will be about their infamous quarter-final in 2005 in which Ebdon – and let’s be clear about this – employed spoiling tactics, slowing down the pace of play to a crawl.

O’Sullivan was unable to cope with this. You could argue this is part of the test of a snooker player. Others would maintain that a break of 12 in five minutes is simply beyond the pail of what is acceptable. Whichever your view, that match hangs over this one like a raincloud.

However, Ebdon has not beaten O’Sullivan since that night in four meetings and the key difference this time is that O’Sullivan will be mentally prepared for what is going to happen.

He wasn’t seven years ago. He was 8-2 up and coasting. What happened surprised and unnerved him.

This match is not as long and if he can get on top of Ebdon early on then it would be a much tougher ask for Ebdon to come back.

But it’s not just Ebdon’s pace of play that is the issue. The point is, he is playing great stuff right now. He’s back to somewhere near his best and his confidence is high.

This is all on O’Sullivan. Is he playing well enough? Is he mentally prepared? He needs to dig in, will he?

I think he will. We saw at the German Masters what he could do when he really, really tries.

This is the Crucible. There is no reason not to make another supreme effort.

PREDICTION: O’Sullivan to win 10-7

MARTIN GOULD v DAVE GILBERT

Gould played some really good stuff to become a top 16 player for the first time this season. Since then he seems to have, perhaps subconsciously, been looking over his shoulder.

This is something many new top 16 players have struggled to cope with, but he is low on confidence and that is not the state of mind you want heading to the Crucible.

When Gilbert started the qualifiers last week there was talk that, because of a bizarre loophole, he would be better losing his first match as he would then be out of the top 64 and get a two-year tour card through his place among the top eight tour qualifiers from the PTC order of merit.

Well, that may have been true but this is the World Championship and every player is going to give it everything. Gilbert’s Crucible debut in 2007 saw him lead Stephen Hendry 5-1 before losing 10-7.

He has done the hard work already by qualifying and can exploit any nerves from Gould, who is playing at Sheffield for the first time as a seed, not a position he seems to have taken to so far this season.

PREDICTION: Gilbert to win 10-8

NEIL ROBERTSON v KEN DOHERTY

Robertson is my tip for the title this year. He is a player who excels in every area of the game. He’s a great potter, heavy scorer, has an iron safety game, understands tactics and psychology and has a big match temperament.

Robertson’s only real weakness is his preparation. He hasn’t elaborated, but admits to not having given the run-in to his title defence last year the proper respect.

I’ve had the feeling all season that he has been eyeing these 17 days in Sheffield. Of course, all players do but they don’t all have the Australian’s strength of character.

He’s a proven winner at the Crucible and he doesn’t have the baggage this year of trying to defend the crown.

Doherty had his day in the Crucible sun in 1997 and was the star of the 2003 championship, if not the winner.

The genial Irishman is far more inconsistent these days. I think he can certainly cause Robertson problems but over a match of this length I’d expect the form man to come through.

PREDICTION: Robertson to win 10-4

DING JUNHUI v RYAN DAY

Day is always potentially dangerous but has gone backwards since his appearance in the Crucible quarter-finals in 2008 and 2009.

Ding blows hot and cold but was impressive at the Crucible last year where he eventually lost an epic semi-final to Judd Trump.

Ding seems nicely settled now in his private life. He lives in a house in Sheffield with his girlfriend, Apple, and maybe this relaxed home life will help him bear fruit come May 7.

He’s certainly good enough. He’s as good a break builder as there is. But he’s also inconsistent and there’s plenty of time for things to go badly wrong at the World Championship. Sometimes you have to dig in and rely on your B game.

He has to be favourite to come through this, although Day is by no means a pushover.

PREDICTION: Ding to win 10-7

MARK ALLEN v CAO YUPENG

Cao has done really well to qualify and his temperament must be good to win deciders against Dave Harold and Tom Ford but it’s his misfortune to run into a player who has always been high in confidence and who now has the silverware to back it up.

I think Allen will have a really good run here. He seems to relish playing on the biggest stages and has a Crucible semi-final and two quarter-finals under his belt from these last three years.

There’s no reason why, given his experience, confidence and form, he shouldn’t be a justified favourite for this one.

PREDICTION: Allen to win 10-4

MATTHEW STEVENS v MARCO FU

There’s usually a riveting 10-9 in the first round and this could be it.

Stevens was among the four or five leading world title contenders in the first half of the last decade. Like Stephen Lee, he has regained his place in the world’s elite top 16 but, unlike Lee, he has not pushed on since.

Fu always seems to play great or not much good at all. This maddening inconsistency means he is out of the top 16 again even though he belongs in there for many, myself included.

If it goes close I’d fancy Fu. And I think it’ll go close.

PREDICTION: Fu to win 10-9

MARK SELBY v BARRY HAWKINS

A week ago, Selby was unable to play due to the trapped nerve in his neck which saw him withdraw from the China Open.

This is not the ideal preparation for the World Championship and he is still receiving treatment. Even if the physical pain goes away he can be forgiven for having mental doubts.

He also has a very tough first round opponent. Hawkins beat Stephen Maguire in the first round last year and was a frame from beating Mark Allen in the last 16.

Hawkins needs to play well again but the intrigue surrounds Selby. Is he really in a fit state to play?

More to the point, given the build-up, could he last the full 17 days? The omens are not good for him even if he wins this first round encounter.

PREDICTION: Selby to win 10-8

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.