Trading Places Help Raise PHF Cash

Trading Places Estate Agents have donated 500 pounds to the Paul Hunter Foundation via Ricky Walden's manager Lee Gorton.

Gorton is one of a group of 'players and others' from the snooker world running the Sheffield Half Marathon next month to raise cash for the Foundation.
"To my knowledge this is the single largest donation so far and I am extremely grateful," said Gorton.
"I think Liam Highfield will run the other 33 of us into the ground and it is just my aim to complete the course and not finish last (of the whole field ....not the 34). Secretly, I would like to finish ahead of Steve Davis but he's training on hills and mountains so I'm not holding out much hope.
"It's great to take part with so many legends of the game for such a worthy cause. I'm sure Paul Hunter would be overwhelmed at the response the run has had and how many are prepared to give up their time to train to raise as much money as they can."

 

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Rocket to face Ebdon at Crucible

Former world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan will face Peter Ebdon in the first round of the World Snooker Championship.

Ebdon booked his place at the Crucible by beating Alfie Burden 10-0 in the final round of qualifying and his reward is a first round clash with three-time winner O'Sullivan. John Higgins returns to the Sheffield arena as defending champion and his quest for another title begins against Liang Wenbo, who last year's runner-up Judd Trump faces Dominic Dale in the opening round.

Luca Brecel will become the youngest competitor in Crucible history when he takes on Scotland's Stephen Maguire with world number one Mark Selby drawn against fellow Englishman Barry Hawkins.cRecord seven-time champion Stephen Hendry had to come through the qualifiers and he will now face England's Stuart Bingham. Ireland's Ken Doherty secured his place in the Crucible via the qualifiers and he has the daunting task of trying to beat 2010 winner Neil Robertson.

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Hendry books Crucible place

Scot overcomes Yu to reach 26th consecutive World Championship

 

Seven-time champion Stephen Hendry held his nerve to book his place at yet another Betfred.com World Championship. Hendry, 43, succeeded where six-time champion Steve Davis and six-time runner-up Jimmy White both failed this week by coming through the qualifying tournament, beating Chinese player Yu Delu 10-6.

"I'm very pleased to be through," Hendry said. "I'm used to playing at the World Championship and it puts that little bit of extra pressure on you, to have to play an extra match to get there."

Hendry, who last had to qualify in 1988 and has been ever-present at the Crucible since 1986, has fallen to 23rd in the world rankings. He awaits Monday's draw, knowing he will have to take on one of the 16 seeded players. He reached the Crucible showpiece after firing in breaks of 73, 69, 76 and 88 in converting an overnight 6-3 lead into a 10-6 victory. On Saturday he recorded breaks of 129 and 107.

"I played quite nicely," Hendry said. "I won a lot of frames in one visit.

"The most important thing was to just go out with the mindset of needing to win the match, no matter how I played, just get the match won."

Meanwhile, Belgian teenager Luca Brecel shattered Hendry's record to become the youngest player to earn a place at the Crucible. Brecel, who at 17 years and 36 days old is two months younger than Hendry was in 1986, beat Essex's Mark King 10-8 in the final round of qualifying, his fourth win of the week. And he will feature in Monday's first-round draw for the event which begins in Sheffield on Saturday.

 

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Crucible aim for Hendry

Scot not letting his head drop at having to qualify

Seven-time champion Stephen Hendry has vowed to do his all to qualify for the Betfred.com World Championship. The world number 23 has fallen so far down the rankings he is incredibly no longer guaranteed a place at Sheffield's Crucible theatre. Hendry is due to take on Chinese cueman Yu Delu and the 43-year-old admits having to go through qualifying is 'not enjoyable'. The Scot, who dominated the sport during the 1990s, knows the importance of approaching the game with the right attitude, stating any negative thoughts will result in defeat.

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Higgins hails Crucible

World champion ready for nervous start at the Crucible

John Higgins will be sick with nerves before he walks out at the Crucible to defend his World Snooker Championship title, but insisted there was nowhere that could match the Sheffield stage.

Higgins has won three of the last five world titles and is again amongst the big favourites to lift the trophy when the Betfred.com World Championship gets underway on April 21. The Wizard of Wishaw will bring the curtain up on this year's tournament as he plays a qualifier on the opening morning of the event, and he admits he will be full of nerves.

"The nerves are really there just before you walk out at the Crucible, you'll probably feel physically sick, but once the match gets underway there's no better place to be than playing in the World Championship," Higgins said. "I'm just concentrating on winning that first match, once that's out the way you feel like you're in the tournament and you can see where you go from there."

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Hearn: Hard work is paying off

Hearn believes Crucible event is the pinnacle of British sport

World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn insists hard work has saved the game as he pledged to make every player a millionaire.

Hearn has turned around the sport in the two-and-a-half years he has been at the helm with now almost 30 tournaments on the calendar with the promise of an even busier 2012/13 season. Hearn, speaking at the launch of the Betfred.com World Championship which gets under way in Sheffield on Saturday, April 21, is convinced the recession would soon be consigned to history if everyone bought into his philosophy. He might have echoed David Jason's Del Trotter as he said: "We're going to make everybody millionaires." But Hearn was gushing with pride as he spoke of the huge strides snooker has taken.

"This is the year that snooker went back to work," he said.

"These kids, these boys, these men, are playing better than they've ever played before. In the year that we're trying to get the country back to work, snooker is leading the way.

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Perfect Ten For McGill

Anthony McGill stormed to a 10-0 whitewash over Adam Wicheard to reach the penultimate qualifying round of the Betfred.com World Championship.

Glasgow's 21-year-old McGill, playing his second season on the main tour, fired in breaks of 57, 63, 64, 57 and 52 in setting up a match with Anthony Hamilton. He needs two more wins to reach the Crucible.

China's Yu Delu thrashed Michael White 10-2 with top runs of 85, 79, 76 and 67 to earn a meeting with Matthew Selt, while another member of snooker's Chinese army, Xiao Guodong, saw off Aditya Mehta 10-4 with a high break of 140.

However the third Chinese player in action on Monday evening, Li Yan, suffered a 10-6 reverse against Thailand's James Wattana. Former World No 3 Wattana led 4-0, then trailed 6-4, then won the last six frames.

Former Crucible semi-finalist Andy Hicks beat Liam Highfield 10-3 while Ben Woollaston came from 3-1 down to beat Daniel Wells 10-4 and set up a match with Steve Davis.

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