You know it’s nearly Christmas time when the BBC cameras roll into town for the first proper major snooker event of the season.
The UK Championship begins in earnest this week in York and this is when we really get down to serious business with a Triple Crown title that all the big guns want to get their hands on.
Returning as defending champion this time round is world number one Mark Selby who is looking to win the event for a third time.
Selby – like all the greats – has this habit of knocking his performance level up a notch just in time for the big events and has a competitive instinct which kicks in and makes him that little bit extra determined to land the biggest prizes.
A year ago he beat Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-7 in a thrilling final and will almost certainly be a match for anyone who wants to wrestle the title from him this time round.
Selby didn’t fly to Northern Ireland for the latest ranking event and will be refreshed and ready for this one. He’s already got the International Championship win under his belt but he knows his season starts properly now.
The world number one usually produces his best here in York. He has reached at the least the semi-finals in four of the past five editions including three finals and two titles. Rapidly in pursuit of the game’s greats, Selby targets this event as one of the special ones and knows the accumulation of this title will help to promote him in the game’s list of best-ever players.
Among the players most likely to deny Selby back-to-back titles is O’Sullivan again who already has two ranking event wins to his name this season and looks to be in sharp form. All eyes will be on these guys as the tournament gets underway.