World Championship (the qualifiers) - The road to Crucible starts here

Back to Sheffield

Starting this Thursday and ending next Sunday, the World Championship qualifying rounds will takes us on a journey where those unfortunate enough not to get a place in the Top 16 are now in need of winning as many matches as possible in order to get their cues touching the green baize from the Crucible later this month.

After a nearly full-booked season of tournaments, with the players travelling from Australia to Thailand and from Brazil to China, the standard of playing has improved greatly and so the competition has become tougher. 

It's not going to be an easy task to get passed the 11 days of cue-crossing, but what's at the end of the road, worths the bother.

This year's World Championship qualifiers are offering us a trip down to memory lane, with John Parrott back in action. The 47-year-old player who was crowned world champion in 1991 has retuned to his great love after losing his Main Tour spot for the 2010/2011 season and decided to quit playing snooker as a professional.

But now he's back and since he's a member of the WPBSA he gets to play in the pre-qualifying matches against a pretty tough opponent, Patrick Wallace. This should be interesting.
Tomorrow the action start with the pre-qualifying two rounds, all matches being played on a "best of nine" rule as it follows:

11am
Round Q1
Q1) John Parrott v. Patrick Wallace
Q2) Joe Delaney v. Stephen Rowlings
Q3) Philip Minchin v. Ian Stark
Q4) Ali Bassiri v. David Singh
Q5) Jamie O'Neill v. David Gray
Q6) Les Dodd v. Justin Astley

6pm
Round Q2
Q7) WINNER OF MATCH Q1 v. WINNER OF MATCH Q2
Q8) WINNER OF MATCH Q3 v. WINNER OF MATCH Q4
Q9) Stephen Ormerod v. WINNER OF MATCH Q5
Q10) Del Smith v .WINNER OF MATCH Q6
*all hours are UK time

As for seeing the boys in action there's always World Snooker's LIVE Sport TV or www.sportlemon.tv .

Let's the games begin!