The 'green carpet' at the 2017 Betfred Snooker World Championships

To mark the 40th anniversary of the World Snooker Championships being held at the Crucible in Sheffield, the green carpet was rolled out to welcome players past and present to a special 40th Anniversary show at the theatre that has been 'home' to snooker since 1977.

 Ray Reardon and Terry Griffiths

 Dennis Taylor and Cliff Thorburn

 Ken Doherty and Steve Davis

 Stephen Hendry

 Ryan Day and Xiao Guodong

 Ryan Day

 Anthony McGill and Stephen Maguire

 Ronnie O'Sullivan and (in the background) Gary Wilson

 Jimmy Robertson and Mark Allen

 Ali Carter and Graeme Dott

Noppon Saengkham and Neil Robertson

 Luca Brecel (doing a good job of keeping Marco Fu hidden behind him)

 Barry Hawkins and Tom Ford

 John Higgins and Martin Gould

 Yan Bingtao and Shaun Murphy

 Zhou Yuelong and Ding Junhui

 A selfie with Ding Junhui

 Stuart Bingham and Peter Ebdon

 Judd Trump and Rory McLeod

 Mark Selby and Fergal O'Brien

The Top 16 Snooker players gather at the Crucible

In a scene reminisent of last year, the day before the 2017 Betfred Snooker World Championship gets underway, the Top 16 players gathered for a photo call before the press conference that started the tournament.

Gathered together were: Mark Selby, Ryan Day, Neil Robertson, Marco Fu, Shaun Murphy, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Liang Wenbo, Ding Junhui, Stuart Bingham, Kyren Wilson, Mark Allen, John Higgins, Barry Hawkins, Ali Carter, Anthony McGill, Judd Trump

Glasgow Rocks Sheffield

In front of the TV cameras, it was a lacklustre night for the DBL Sharks Sheffield as they were comprehensively beaten by the Glasgow Rocks 55-84. The Sharks never recovered from a speedy 2-15 start by the Rocks, only recording 23 points in a flat first half, and the game was dead as a contest by the final ten minutes at 42-62. Sharks Coach Atiba Lyons vowed that his side wouldn’t perform in that way again - as an incentive there is another chance to perform in front of the TV cameras away at Leicester next weekend.

 Coach Atiba Lyons sums up at the end of the first quarter

 Coach Ariel Parrucci looks on with captain Mike Tuck

 Zach Gachette goes for a layup

 Max Guercy floats one in

 Mike Tuck lays up

 Rashawn Rembert runs in

  Rashawn Rembert tries a shot

 Tony Wroblicky works his way through the Glasgow defence

 Rashawn Rembert tries a three

 Followed by Malcolm Riley

 Malcolm Riley is fouled on his way through

 And takes the free throws

 Eddy Brownell

Colin Sing blocks out for Aaron Williams

Tony Wroblicky’s 8 points, 10 rebounds and 1 assist made him MVP.

Sheffield Sharks at last get the better of Newcastle Eagles

In a thrilling "game of two halves" at the EIS, Sheffield on Friday night, Sheffield Sharks overcame one of the longest standing losing streaks to finally beat Newcastle Eagles.

It was 12 games ago in February 2014 when the Sharks last came away with the points against Newcastle, so when the Eagles took an early lead and were 31-43 up in the middle of the second quarter, it could have been same-old-same-old.  But the Sharks hit back to leave it 41-47 at half-time.

Coming out with renewed vigour in the second half, Sharks kept up with Newcastle to take it to 61-64 near the end of the third.  They then went on an amazing run - 21 unanswered points - to eventually run out 95-84 winners.

 Max Guercy, in for the injured Jordan Davies, run in

Max Guercy guards Deondre Parks

 Ramon Fletcher runs in

Coach Atiba Lyons

 Rashawn Rembert breaks away for a layup

Zach Gachette floats one in

Eddy Brownell on the ball

Malcolm Riley goes for a three

Birthday boy Mike Tuck shoots from the sides

George Brownell runs in, screened by Marko Backovic

Colin Sing runs in

Max Guercy finishes off a fine run in

Fab Fournoy tries to energise the Newcastle bench

With 29 points and 5 rebounds, MVP goes to Malcolm Riley