‘Battle of Leeds’ as Peter Lines and Sanderson Lam put friendship aside to try and qualify for World Championship in Sheffield

The duo - who both train at Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds - must put aside their friendship as they embark on a gruelling 10 days of qualifiers to reach the Crucible.

In the red corner is former World Seniors champion Lines - the 52-year-old has played at the Crucible previously, back in 1998 - whose son Oliver, will join the qualifiers in the second round on Friday at Sheffield’s English Institute of Sport. In the blue corner, is Lam, 28, who has been in good form this season - reaching the third round of the recent Gibraltar Open - as he goes in pursuit of his first Crucible appearance.

The winner will meet China’s Cao Yupeng in round two.

Only 16 out of 128 players will emerge from the qualifiers to secure a prized Crucible spot, with the tournament starting on Saturday April 16. Other Yorkshire players in action at the EIS, sees York’s Ashley Hugill face the winner of Ben Hancorn and Dean Young in the second round on Thursday afternoon.

Also in the second round, Leeds duo Oliver Lines and David Grace enter the competition. Lines, 26, plays the winner of Peter Devlin and Yorrit Hoes on Friday night. Grace waits the outcome of the match between Iulian Boiko and Michael Georgiou. ahead of his Friday afternoon opener. Rotherham’s Ashley Carty’s second-round match sees him play either Jackson Page or Sean O’Sullivan on Friday afternoon.

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