THE quest to find York’s best snooker player starts next month.

The opening match of the York Masters tournament will see four-time Scruton Cup winner Clive Whyte meet Glen Mountain on January 6.

The York Masters, the brainchild of city snooker player Adrian Barraclough, will see many of the region’s top Conservative Club and York CIU division one players going head-to-head over the coming months.

Twenty-four entrants have been drawn into eight groups of three with the top two in each going through to the last 16.

The event is being played on Barraclough’s World Snooker standard tournament table above his Quickslide showroom in Layerthorpe.

The opening stages see matches played over a best-of-five-frame format.

Richard Lillie, tournament director, said all the players were eagerly awaiting the start of the action in the new year.

“The eight group winners will be drawn randomly against the eight runners-up in the last 16,” he said.

“Steve Gregson and Ashley Hugill are probably the two best players in the draw but there are also the likes of Lee Taylor.

“The table will also be so quick that those who have played on it, or one like it, could have a massive advantage.

“Quite a few people over the years have been saying they wanted to see a tournament like this and every game will have a separate referee and marker.

“It should be a really good tournament.”

For more information about the event log on to www.yorkmasters.co.uk

First round schedule

January 6: Group ‘A’, Glen Mountain v Clive Whyte; January 7: Group ‘B’, Pete Glover v Jordan Worobec; January 10: Group ‘C’, John Dowd v Daz Colledge; January 12: Group ‘D’, Paul Mahoney v Mark Hodson; January 13: Group ‘E’, Kevin Gall v Dan Potter; January 14: Group ‘F’, Nick Marchant v Adam Scaife; January 17: Group ‘H’, Steve Gregson v Keith Thornhill; January 19: Group ‘G’, Adrian Barraclough v Ashley Hugill; January 20: Group ‘B’, Pete Glover v Justin Morris; January 21: Group ‘A’, Mountain v Taylor; January 24: Group ‘C’, Dowd v Andi Ireland; January 26: Group ‘D’, Mahoney v Tim Lister; January 27: Group ‘F’, Marchant v Paul Holmes; January 28: Group ‘E’, Gall v Tim Hart; January 31: Group ‘H’, Gregson v Mick Borg; February 2: Group ‘C’, Colledge v Ireland; February 3: Group ‘G’, Barraclough v Roland Cox; February 4: Group ‘A’, Whyte v Taylor; February 7: Group ‘D’, Hodson v Lister; February 9: Group ‘B’, Worobec v Morris; February 10: Group ‘G’, Hugill v Cox; February 11: Group ‘H’, Thornhill v Borg; February 14: Group ‘F’, Scaife v Holmes; February 16: Group ‘E’, Potter v Hart.