UK Championship: Snooker chiefs asked to read between the Lines

Peter Lines and Oliver Lines (Picture: Simon Hulme)

Father-and-son Peter and Oliver Lines have already avoided one unwanted clash this week '“ they will not be forced to play at the same time at the Betway UK Championship.

The Leeds duo are the only father-and-son players on snooker’s professional circuit, and travel the world together on Tour.

Peter, 46, and 22-year-old Oliver are big supporters of each other, and often can be found in the arena watching the other play.

That is sometimes not possible, when the pair are picked to play at the same time.

And for Oliver, that can be an unwanted distraction – like at last week’s Northern Ireland Open.

But when they head up the A1 to the York Barbican on Wednesday, there will be no issues for the Lines boys when they tackle Chinese opposition.

Peter plays Zhou Youlong on Wednesday morning, while Oliver comes up against Mei Xiwen later that evening.

Oliver hopes snooker chiefs will take note of the issue, for future events, and keep them in separate sessions.

“It’s not good,” said Oliver. “It’s awkward because we are always watching each other’s scores.

“It’s not nice, and it wouldn’t take much to put us on at separate times.”

A World Snooker spokesman told The Yorkshire Post: “We receive a lot of scheduling requests from players and we always try to assist where possible.

“We have 20 ranking events a season and there will inevitably be times when we can’t meet all of these requests as there are a lot of factors to take into account.”

The Lines pair are joined at York by six other Yorkshire players.

Pickering’s Paul Davison, 46, faces two-time world champion Mark Williams in the first round on Thursday morning.

In that same session Doncaster’s Christopher Keogan plays David Gilbert, while Sheffield’s Adam Duffy meets Dominic Dale on Thursday evening.

Sanderson Lam has a tricky match against Liang Wenbo on Thursday morning, while fellow Leeds cueman David Grace meets Jak Jones on Tuesday evening.

York’s Ashley Hugill is in action on Wednesday morning, when he plays Anthony McGill.

The Lines boys have good memories of York from 12 months ago. Peter caused a huge first-round shock by knocking out former world champion Neil Robertson on his way to the last 32.

But Oliver went one better. He reached the last 16, picking up the prized scalp of world No 2 Judd Trump along the way.

Oliver has spent the last week training at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds, after his early exit from the Northern Ireland Open last week.

“I got back from Belfast on Wednesday, and back on the practice table now preparing for York,” he said. “It’s a tournament which everyone wants to do well in.”