HAVING had a taste of snooker's high life, North Yorkshire professional Paul Davison will be trying to recapture the feeling by getting through the qualifying stages for the Welsh Open, at Prestatyn, in Wales, over the next three days.
Davison, provisionally at 93 in the world rankings, qualified for the televised stages of a major ranking tournament for the first time in his 14-year career last October - taking part in the Royal London Watches Grand Prix in Aberdeen.
Now having done it once, the 35-year-old Pickering player is keen to repeat the feat.
But it will be a tough task. Davison, who practises at Filey Snooker Club, must defeat Ben Woollaston, Shokat Ali and Fergal O'Brien in best-of-nine frame encounters if he is to make the final stages of the competition next month.
He admitted that although he felt he was in good touch, the Christmas and New Year period meant he hadn't been at the table as much as he would have liked.
But he said he was still confident and, after watching snooker's stars battle it out in York last month at the Maplin UK Championship, is hungry to experience the limelight once again.
"The first game (Woollaston) is going to be a tough one but I feel I just have to worry about my own game. If I am on my own game, it doesn't matter how they play," Davison said.
"I haven't done as much work as I would have normally. I have been working a bit more in the club and obviously it's been Christmas.
"The times I have played, and I did four hours yesterday, I have done reasonably well.
"It would be great to go through and qualify again especially after watching the two-table set up at York.
"It would be great to continue what happened at Aberdeen."
Meanwhile, York will learn in mid-summer whether it will again be chosen to host the UK Championship for a seventh time.
World Snooker, the game's governing body, says that's when it will be announcing its timetable for the 2007/2008 season.
The Barbican Centre has hosted the competition since 2001 and the tournament was won last month by Peter Ebdon, who beat Stephen Hendry 10-6 in the final.
Ivan Herschowitz, World Snooker press officer, said Barbican crowds were slightly up on 2005, which was pleasing considering it was the sixth time York had hosted the game's second biggest tournament.
"It means that not only are people coming again, there are new people coming," he said.
"It was a good tournament. The standard of snooker was very high. The atmosphere in the final was excellent and obviously the players and fans continue to like the venue."
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