MARK Selby breathed a huge sigh of relief on Saturday night - after edging a Betfred World Championship classic against Kurt Maflin.
Read MoreRELIEVED SELBY: I WAS PREPARING 'CURSE' EXIT SPEECH
SELBY STARTS BALL ROLLING IN SNOOKER'S GAME OF THRONES
THE 17-DAY SNOOKER marathon that is the Betfred World Championship begins this morning at the Crucible in Sheffield…
Read MoreFAB FOUR HEADING FOR CRUCIBLE
THERE WILL BE four Crucible debutants in this year’s Betfred World Championship after Kurt Maflin earned a last gasp victory over Fergal O’Brien to secure the final qualifying place.
Read MoreSELBY AND MAFLIN RECALL JUNIOR CLASHES
Mark Selby and Kurt Maflin may not have played too often as professionals, but their semi-final meeting at the China Open brought together two 31-year-olds who have been crossing cues for more than 20 years.
Maflin reckoned he had first played current world champion and world No1 Selby at the age of about nine.
And Leicester Jester Selby said: “It is easy to forget, but if Kurt is just older than me it can only be by a few months. He used to come to Willie Thorne’s for the junior competitions with his father.
“And I think I played Kurt in the final of the England Under-15s once, if I remember rightly I won that one 4-3. We haven’t played a lot as pros, I do think Kurt is very talented and has underachieved given that, which he says himself – but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he made it to the Crucible for the first time this year, as long as he gets over the jet-lag okay.”
WILSON AND MAFLIN IN BEIJING SEMIS
SATURDAY IN BEIJING will see Kurt Maflin and Gary Wilson each attempt to reach the first ranking event final of their respective careers.
Read MoreSNOOKER'S SCANDIES GRAB THE SPOTLIGHT
Think Norway v Finland in a sporting context and ski-jumping springs more readily to mind than snooker – but the Scandinavians changed all that in Beijing.
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