The 2004 IBSF World Snooker Championships are being hosted for the first time by Holland, in Velthoven, near Eindhoven.

This thirtieth staging of the event, first held in 1963, runs from 21st November - 4th December and it promises to be the biggest and best ever.

There are a record 168 players from forty-one countries lined up in the Men's, Ladies and inaugural Seniors Championships.

To cater for an event in which there will be 861 matches played, a magnificent twenty-two-table venue in the NH Koningshof Hotel in Veldhoven, has been set up.

The defending champion, Pankaj Advani of India, lines up against a very strong international field, which includes the current European champion Mark Allen, and the finalist Alex Borg, runner up in the IBSF World Under 21 championship, Kobkit Palajin from Thailand, and the Indian and Asian Champion, Alok Kumar.

Other players makings the step up from the World Under 21 include Holland's own Rolf de Jong who was runner up in 1999 and Ireland's Rob Murphy, the finalist in 1998 and Hong Kong's Chan Kwok Ming who won the World Under 21 back in 1996.

Host country Holland are allowed a player in every group and they have a strong line up of proven match winners and experienced players. Their enigmatic former champion Raymon Fabrie can be awful or unbeatable on the day and Rene van Rijsbergen, Karan Chand, Reind Duut, Gerrit bij de Leij, Mario Wehrmann and Roy Stolk are all current or former professionals.

The UK countries send strong contenders, as usual.

 

Wales are led by their number one, Llanelli's Gavin Pantall. Scotland's current champion and Challenge Tour professional Richy McDonald flies their flag.

 

England have David Lilley and their number one James Tatton and Northern Ireland, as well as the irrepressible Mark Allen, who reached the semi final last year, have experienced campaigners in Paddy McLoughlin and Kieran McMahon. Many eyes will be on Ireland's youngest ever Champion David Morris, who will celebrate his sixteenth birthday during the event.

Also amongst the line up are several players with a proven pedigree in IBSF Championships. English Amateur Champion David Lilley was runner up in 1999, while Pakistan's Saleh Mohammed is last year's beaten finalist. 2002 Winner Steve Mifsud carries Australia's flag and Malta have their veteran, Joe Grech, runner up as far back as 1987, in the field. Grech was also runner up in the IBSF World Billiards Championship in the same year.

Another Billiards Champion is making the transition to snooker. India's Geet Sethi, three times the World Billiards Champion, takes his place in the Seniors event. Sethi has a unique entry in snooker's record books. He was the first man to make an official 147 break in an amateur tournament.

 

That came in the Indian Snooker Championship and Sethi will be pitting his wits against the snooker specialists. Pre-tournament favourite will be the former top 16 star Dene O'Kane from New Zealand. Another former snooker star Eugene Hughes is also in the field. Hughes won the European Seniors title in 2001 and this year's winner, England's Alan Trigg is also in the line up, as is Welshman Ron Jones, the European winner in 2002 and 2003.

In the absence of defending ladies champion Kelly Fisher, who is now pursuing a 9-ball career in America, the favourites will be England's Reanne Evans and Belgium's Wendy Jans. This pair contested the European Championship final earlier in the summer and on that occasion Jans prevailed 6-3. But Evans is improving rapidly and is widely tipped to take the title. But they won't have things all their own way. A strong contingent of players from Australia, led by Kathy Parashis supply substance to the field and strong European challenge will come from Norway's experience Anita Rizutti, while host country Holland will be cheering for Saskia Smits.

The following countries have sent players to Holland: Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, China, China Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Japan, Latvia, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mongolia, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Norway, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Poland, Qatar, Scotland, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United States of America and Wales.