Hendon: Big names to watch as 'huge jeopardy' of Crucible qualifying gets started

It’s that time of year again.

Soon, the Crucible will be transformed from one of Britain’s most renowned regional theatres to a sporting cauldron, staging not scripted drama but the slow burning intrigue of the World Snooker Championship.

Before snooker’s greatest show gets underway on April 20 there are 10 days of qualifying action – live on discovery+ – to decide the 16 players who will face the game’s top 16 ranked players in round one. And this year, they promise to be a formidable bunch.

Some fans will require a double take to confirm that Neil Robertson’s name is among the throng heading for the English Institute of Sport, a few miles from the Crucible in Sheffield, where the qualifiers take place.

Robertson is the 2010 world champion and has been one of the leading title favourites each year ever since. However, he has not won a ranking event for two years and a poor run of results, combined with losing a large slice of points on the two-year cycle, have seen him surrender his top 16 position.

The last time this happened, back in 2017, he immediately won the next tournament, but Robertson must survive two best-of-19 frame encounters just to take his place in the Crucible draw.

He is first seeded to meet Zak Surety, who made a 147 break at the recent World Open, before a possible match against Jamie Jones, a World Championship quarter-finalist back in 2012.

This is Robertson’s first time in world qualifying since 2006. It’s a low-key environment a world away from the shiny glitz of the final stages, but carries with it huge jeopardy: you’re either centre stage at the Crucible or sat at home licking your wounds while the rest battle for glory.

Like Robertson, Jack Lisowski was seeded last season but has lost his top 16 position so must qualify this year. Lisowski, a quarter-finalist two years ago, joins Robertson on a list of potentially difficult draws for the top seeds.

Si Jiahui is another. He came within two frames of the final last year, losing an epic duel with Luca Brecel 17-15 after holding a 14-5 advantage. Anthony McGill, a semi-finalist in 2020, always seems to play well at the World Championship, beating Judd Trump in the first round 12 months ago. Stuart Bingham was champion in 2015 while Hossein Vafaei beat Ding Junhui in round one last year before his infamous grudge match with Ronnie O’Sullivan, which ended in a heavy 13-2 defeat for the Iranian.

Veteran snooker watchers will be interested in the progress of former champions Ken Doherty and Graeme Dott and, of course, it wouldn’t be the World Championship without Jimmy White.

This is White’s 44th tilt at the title. He famously lost in six finals between 1984 and 1994 but nothing dims the 61 year-old Whirlwind’s enthusiasm. White was due to start in the first round of qualifying but his opponent, Martin Gould, has withdrawn because of ill health. He will therefore first be in action on April 10 against Liu Hongyu, a 19 year-old rookie professional born a few days after White won the last of his 10 ranking titles, the 2004 Players Championship. If White were to win the match he would face a tough encounter with Lisowski to reach the final qualifying round.

Fergal O’Brien will call time on his 33-year professional career at this year’s championship, with a likely match against Dott on April 12 – 25 years and one day after he landed his sole ranking title, the 1999 British Open. The 52 year-old Dubliner is set to drop off the tour but rather than another appearance at Q School will focus in the future on his coaching and commentary work.

At the other end of the age scale, a group of talented British youngsters are hoping to come through the pack, Luke Littler style.

Stan Moody (17), Liam Pullen (18), Liam Graham (19) and Liam Davies (17) all possess potential. It would be great if at least one could get on a run towards making it to the TV stage.

There are five women in this year’s qualifying event, including Bai Yulu, the new world champion from China, who plays in the opening session against Stoke’s Jenson Kendrick.

Who could be the outsiders to watch?

He Guoqiang has enjoyed an outstanding debut season on tour, beating the likes of Mark Williams, Kyren Wilson, Vafaei and Barry Hawkins and reaching the quarter-finals of the British Open.

Aaron Hill fell off the tour after his initial spell but has looked a better player since regaining his place through Q School. The Cork cueist reached the Wuhan Open quarter-finals this season and, as Doherty and O’Brien prepare to exit the stage, represents the future of Irish snooker.

Michael Holt lost his tour card in 2022 but blamed nothing and no one other than himself. He began coaching, set up a YouTube channel and didn’t think it was beneath him to go and play in amateur events to try and regain his place on the pro circuit. It worked when he topped the Q Tour rankings, ensuring a return to the World Snooker Tour next season. This makes Holt particularly dangerous as he enters the fray in round one of qualifying as an invite.

Various other players have the dual headache of World Championship pressure and the fight to keep their tour cards for next season. It’s a death or glory struggle which can rescue or ruin careers.

The Crucible of course provides the perfect stage for a green baize soap opera but there are so many plotlines to keep on top of before we even get there.

For all the snooker that is played during the season, this is the one which really matters. And it’s with us again.