ONE of the highlights of my sporting calendar begins this weekend when the World Snooker Championships get underway in Sheffield.

Two weeks of green baize action will kick off at the famous Crucible Theatre and the eyes of the snooker world will be looking on wondering who will be added to the long list of champions.

From a local perspective, it is great to see Farnworth’s Craig Steadman involved for the first time on the big stage.

The 32-year-old makes his debut after several near misses in qualifying and he could not have asked for a more attractive draw in round one with last year’s beaten finalist Ronnie O’Sullivan his opponent in round one on Tuesday.

Bolton has a rich history when it comes to sport and snooker is a big part of that.

I remember as a youngster first getting into the sport watching Tony Knowles and wanting to replicate his achievements at the local snooker hall.

Sadly, the only big breaks in my snookering life came with watching the TV quiz show of the same name on Saturday evenings.

But it did not deter me from trying to emulate Knowles and other idols of the era like Jimmy White and Alex Higgins.

Snooker still has its stars but the sport has struggled to maintain its popularity for the masses in recent years.

While the World Championships still attracts interest, few other tournaments capture the imagination.

Maybe the fact there is so much variety and choice to watch sport on Sky TV now means the days of snooker on the BBC hogging the viewing figures will never return.

It is unlikely we will ever see a TV audience of 18 million staying up past midnight like they did when Dennis Taylor potted that famous black in the final against Steve Davis in 1985.

But up-and-coming young stars like Judd Trump keep the sport fresh and it may just need snooker chief Barry Hearn to drum up a few ideas to rekindle those glory years.

Maybe get Chas and Dave back in the studio to record Snooker Loopy 2 – that might do the trick.

In all seriousness, Hearn does not need any help from me. You just look at what he has done for darts in recent years to take that out of the small venues to big arena audiences.

It may be harder to jazz up but where there’s a will there’s a way – we are not completely snookered yet.