UK Championship: Davison faces former Crucible champion in York

North Yorkshire's Paul Davison will face two-time world champion Mark Williams in the first round of the Betway UK Championship.

The Pickering potter, 46, was paired against Welshman Williams in Tuesday’s draw for the UK finals at the York Barbican later this month.

Davison is one of eight Yorkshire players competing in York, alongside Chris Keogan (Doncaster), Adam Duffy (Sheffield), Sanderson Lam (Leeds), David Grace (Leeds), Peter Lines (Leeds), Oliver Lines (Leeds) and Ashley Hugill (York).

Keogan will play David Gilbert, Duffy faces Dominic Dale, while Lam has a tricky match against Liang Wenbo.

Father and son Peter and Oliver Lines tackle Zhou Youlong and Mei Xi Wen, respectively, while fellow Leeds cueman Grace meets Jak Jones, and Hugill plays Anthony McGill.

World No 1 Mark Selby will face Egypt’s Basem Eltahhan when he gets the defence of his title underway at the event which runs from November 28 to December 10.

Ronnie O’Sullivan will be up against Scotland’s Rhys Clark in his opening match.

The UK Championship is one of snooker’s Triple Crown events with a rich history dating back 40 years to 1977.

Total prize money this year is £850,000 with the winner to take home £170,000.

The final and semi-finals are already sold out but tickets for other sessions are still available – for details visit www.worldsnooker.com/tickets