ROCKET WARMS UP AGAINST LATVIAN HOT ROD

RONNIE O’Sullivan has used Sheffield as a pre-tournament training camp successfully twice in the past 12 months – for last year’s World Championship win, and also January’s Masters triumph.

And the Rocket was up in the Steel City again almost a week before he walks out as defending champion on Saturday at the Crucible.

The routine is relaxed and straightforward – practising at the Star Academy, running, and generally staying away from the prying eyes of the media and the greater spotlight at home.

There are a host of potential sparring partners passing through the academy at the Sheffield United Football Club training ground.

Last year O’Sullivan played against old foe Peter Ebdon, whose pre-tournament predictions that his rival would storm through the field proved completely accurate.

This time O’Sullivan started out his preparation with a different approach, taking on 16-year-old Latvian national champion and Academy resident Rodion Judin.

The teenager is one of the great hopes in the Baltic states, one of snooker’s new frontiers.

Ding Junhui, the man of the season with five ranking titles, was also around – but as a potential semi-final opponent it looked likely the pair would avoid practising with each other, and O’Sullivan arranged further preparation against Shanghai Masters finalist Xiao Guodong.

FORD FORCED INTO REVERSE

TOM FORD was delighted after an excellent 10-8 win over former World Championship finalist Matthew Stevens at Ponds Forge to take him back to the Crucible.

He was slightly less pleased while somewhere past Junction 29 on the M1 heading back to Leicester to receive a call asking him to turn around and go back to Sheffield for some TV work.

The BBC were filming all 32 players solemnly walking towards the camera and folding their arms in the style often used by football, rugby and rugby league for use during the 17-day event.

But with many matches finishing at the same time and various media commitments Ford left the building as the only man not ticked off, with the top 16 having done the filming at the Masters.

With so little time to complete the set before the Saturday kick-off there was no option but to ask Ford to come back.

But there is nothing like a win taking you to snooker’s Mecca to engender some general bonhomie and Ford obliged the request, deciding he would rather do it late on Tuesday and enjoy his day off Wednesday before the first-round draw.