Tour dream

12:29pm Saturday 5th April 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

PICKERING potter Paul Davison's dreams of regaining his place on World Snooker's main tour are going down to the wire.

The North Yorkshire cueman needs a strong performance in the last Pontin's International Open Series (PIOS) event later this month if he is to again compete with the likes of Ronnie O'Sullivan, Stephen Maguire and world champion John Higgins.

Davison, 36, was knocked out in round four of the seventh PIOS tournament, held at Pontin's in Prestatyn, Wales, last week. After a walkover in round one, Davison saw off Adam Davies 4-2 and Mark Sutton 4-1 before falling 4-1 to Gavin Lomax.

The result leaves Davison tied for eighth place with Burntwood's Rob Jones in the PIOS rankings - with only the top eight securing a place on next season's main tour.

That makes his efforts in the final Prestatyn competition, to be held from April 14 to 18, hugely important if he is to rejoin the big boys. Davison, who won the third PIOS tournament last September, has been drawn against Andrew Atkinson - currently ranked 52nd in the table - in the first round.

Successfully negotiating that tie will set up a second round clash against the winner of Germany's Itaro Santos and Wirral-based player Bobby Cruickshank.

Elsewhere, York's Steve Gregson was edged out 4-3 by Andrew Rogers in the first round of his PIOS clash and, ranked 81st, will meet Tam Mustafa in the final event.

The 18-year-old, of Stockton-on-the-Forest, is currently gearing up to represent England in the Under-19 European Championships - starting in Glasgow on Saturday - before resuming his assault on the English Amateur Snooker Championship at the Northern Snooker Centre, in Leeds, a week later.

Gregson has also learned he is ranked highly enough to represent England in the home internationals, at Pontin's, for the third year running and has also set his sights on going to Paris later this year for the World U21 Championships.