UK Championship qualifiers: Two former world champions to meet on long road to York
There will be a clash of two former world champions when Peter Lines meets Reanne Evans in the first qualifying round of the Victorian Plumbing UK Championship.
For Leeds potter Lines – a former World Seniors champion – has been draw to play Evans, pictured, one of snooker’s best female players over the last two decades and a 12-times world champion, in the opening round of qualifiers at Robin Park Centre in Wigan on November 22.
In total, 128 players will compete over four rounds of qualifiers, with the last remaining 16 joining the world’s top 16 seeds at the York Barbican on November 29.
Lines, 55, is one of several players from Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds hoping to battle their way through to York.
They include Lines’ son, Oliver, who enters in the second round, at the same time as Leeds’ Sanderson Lam and Halifax’s Stan Moody.
York’s Liam Pullen, 20, and Ashley Hugill must win four matches to reach their hometown event. Pullen has been drawn against Leicester’s Kaylan Patel in the opening round, while Hugill, 31, takes on China’s Gao Yang.
David Grace – the 40-year-old Leeds cueman who reached the UK semi-finals in 2015 – opens against Brazil’s Igor Figueiredo.
High-profile names including Northern Ireland Open champion Jack Lisowski, former world champions Luca Brecel, Stuart Bingham and Ken Doherty and ex-UK winner Stephen Maguire must all endure the qualifiers.
In York, Judd Trump will begin the defence of his UK title in the opening session at the Barbican on November 29.
He beat Barry Hawkins 10-8 last year, and will open against one of the qualifiers.
International Championship winner Wu Yize – who is based in Sheffield at the Ding Junhui Academy – is a seed for the first time and opens on Sunday November 30 at 1pm, with three-time UK Champion Neil Robertson on the other table.
World champion Zhao Xintong plays at 1pm on Monday December 1, while eight-time UK champion Ronnie O'Sullivan opens on Tuesday December 2 at 1pm.
Day tickets for Wigan are priced at £12, while limited tickets for York remain, priced from £30. Ticket details at www.wst.tv