World Seniors Championship 2011 - Draw Revealed

The draw for this year's World Seniors Snooker Championship in Novemeber was revealed today. The event the East of England Showground in Peterborough event features 16 legends of the game and was won last year by Jimmy White.

East of England Showground, Peterborough

Novemeber 5-6th

TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW, for details see www.worldsnooker.com/tickets or call 0871 620 7052.

UPDATE: Alain Robidoux withdrew and was replaced by former UK Champion; Doug Mountjoy

The random draw for the first round took place today and the line up is:

Defending champion JIMMY WHITE v Former World No 2 TONY KNOWLES
1991 World Champion JOHN PARROTT v 1986 World Champion JOE JOHNSON
The fastest cue in snooker TONY DRAGO v Six times World Champion STEVE DAVIS
New Zealand's best ever player DENE O'KANE v Former World No 3 NEAL FOULDS
1980 World Champion CLIFF THORBURN v Former UK Champion DOUG MOUNTJOY
Current Sky Shoot-Out champion NIGEL BOND v 1985 World Champion DENNIS TAYLOR
Karl Townsend v Steve Ventham
Gary Wilkinson v Darren Morgan

Total prize money on offer is £53,000, with the winner to pocket a cheque for £18,000.

All players will be aged over 45, a change from last year's event which was over-40. All matches will be the best of three frames, with a 30-second shot clock. The last 16 will take place on Saturday November 5, and the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final on Sunday November 6. There will be further random draws for the quarter finals and semi finals at the venue.

It will be great to see some of the stars of the past returning to Sky for the Seniors World Championship this November. Last year's tournament was a success and was enjoyable to watch with the players getting involved in banter with the crowds.

The most mouth-watering tie of the first round has to be between Steve Davis and Tony Drago. With both these players still on the main tour and still competing well it will be interesting to see who will win in a best of three match.

One match that I will personally be looking forward to is the tie between Canadian legends Cliff Thorburn and Alain Robidoux. These two along with Kirk Stevens (who seems to be absent from the event) are the best players to come from the country so there will be a high level of rivalrly between the pair.

The event will be broadcast live on SkySports and highlights will be shown at Christmas time.