Crucible

In the first of the last-16 matches, 2005 winner Shaun Murphy moved into a dominant 6-2 lead over China’s Xiao Guodong.

Murphy scraped through 10-9 against Fan Zhengyi in the first round, calling his match-winning break of 50 in the decider the best break he had ever made at the Crucible after he had trailed 53-17.

But the 43-year-old Englishman found this session to be calmer as he made breaks of 79, 103, 63 and 64 to go 5-0 ahead.

World number nine Xiao took the next two frames, but Murphy ended the session well and took the last with a run of 61 to have a four-frame lead in the first-to-13 match.

That match resumes on Friday at 10:00 BST and Murphy could win it with a session to spare if he wins seven of the eight frames in that session. The third session, if needed, will take place from 19:00.

Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen holds a 5-3 lead against England’s Kyren Wilson, the 2024 champion.

Two-time semi-finalist Allen made breaks of 50 and 78 to race into a 5-0 lead, but Wilson won the last three frames of the session, helped by runs of 75 and 50.

The second session is on Friday from 14:30, before it is played to a finish on Saturday morning.

And this is the nub of it: history.

Alex Higgins and baby daughter Lauren in 1982. Dennis Taylor wagging his finger in ’85. Ronnie O’Sullivan’s five-minute maximum. White the exasperated nearly man. The dominant Davis and Stephen Hendry decades.

Rob Maul covers snooker for the Sun and Shane McDermott has been a mainstay of the media room for the Mirror.

As Maul says: “You can’t ignore the history. It’s a pilgrimage I’ve done since 2018 and I feel honoured to do it, but there are people in that building who have done it for decades and decades and decades.

“That’s the unique thing about snooker: they’ve kept the Hendrys in the sport, and they’re still working. John Parrott’s commentating. And that legacy is something you don’t throw away lightly.

“When you walk around the city, you see Steve Davis, and Jimmy White will come by if he’s working. And so much has changed in other sports, but snooker’s fundamentally the same game that these legends were playing.”

McDermott says: “You see the same faces year on year, people who have been coming every year since 1977. Sadly some of them are coming less and less because of age.

“I can remember after matches perhaps nipping out of the press room for a minute and bumping into John Virgo as he left the commentary box. You’d have a little nod and say hello. That’s one thing everyone will miss this year.”

Faces in the crowd, faces in the commentary box, faces at the table. Here one year, gone the next.

In recent times, snooker has lost Virgo, Ray Reardon, Willie Thorne and Terry Griffiths, among others. Broadcaster and journalist Clive Everton and Bafta-nominated former BBC snooker executive producer Nick Hunter have left us too.

The booming voice and laughter of Thorne, the gentle humour of Griffiths, the wisdom of Everton, the dry wit of Virgo.

They were part of the fixtures and fittings.

And in their own particular ways, they each played a telling role in the Crucible becoming what it was never built to be: snooker’s home.

Seven-time winner Ronnie O’Sullivan will begin his bid for a record-breaking eighth World Snooker Championship title with a match against China’s debutant He Guoqiang at the Crucible.

O’Sullivan, 50, will start his first-round tie at the Sheffield theatre on Tuesday and conclude the match on Wednesday.

Sixteen players came through qualifying this week at the English Institute of Sport and will join the world’s top 16 ranked players at the tournament.

He, ranked 47th in the world, qualified for the Crucible for the first time with a win over England’s Jack Lisowski on Wednesday.

Zhao Xintong became the first Chinese player to clinch the world title when he won the 2025 event and will be involved in the first session of the tournament on Saturday (10:00 BST).

He will face England’s Liam Highfield, who advanced through four qualifying rounds.

The draw was made on BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast on Thursday.

Elsewhere, world number one Judd Trump will take on Gary Wilson and Masters champion Kyren Wilson will be up against 19-year-old debutant Stan Moody.

Four-time champion John Higgins will take on two-time runner-up Ali Carter, while Mark Selby, also with four Crucible titles, faces 2024 runner-up Jak Jones.

O’Sullivan and Stephen Hendry both have the most world titles in the modern era with seven apiece, with O’Sullivan winning his first one 25 years ago, in 2001.

The 17-day competition begins on Saturday, with the final starting on Sunday, 3 May and concluding the next day – with full coverage of the tournament live on the BBC.

The Crucible has staged the World Championship yearly since 1977 and last month it was announced it would remain there until 2045, with the venue set to be redeveloped to add up to 500 additional seats.

Former semi-finalist Marco Fu cruised to a 10-1 win in the opening round of World Championship qualifying to move a step closer to the Crucible.

Fu, 48, twice reached the last four of the championship in 2006 and 2016 but was most recently ranked 85th in the world.

He last played at the Crucible in 2018.

Fu had no issues in beating female player Mink Nutcharut of Thailand, hitting three century breaks including an impressive 137.

“I played quite well and scored heavily, she is very capable,” Fu said.

“It would mean everything for me to get back to the Crucible but the standard now is so high.”

1997 champion Ken Doherty will not return after losing 10-5 to Patrick Whelan, while 12-time women’s champion Reanne Evans lost 10-7 to Vladislav Gradinari of Moldova.

There are four rounds of qualifying matches, producing 16 players who will take their place in the main draw.

The tournament takes place at the famous Crucible Theatre in Sheffield from 18 April – 4 May.