Chinese wave v Class of 92: who will survive Crucible’s heat at this year’s World Snooker Championships?

For snooker fans, heading to the Crucible in the spring feels like a ­pilgrimage. The faithful who gather there over the next fortnight will do so with a sense of relief, safe in the knowledge that the tournament will stay put for decades, thanks to the £45m deal announced last month.

The arena is set to be revamped ­following the 2028 tournament – it is hoped 500 seats can be added, taking the capacity to about 1,500 – with the event then remaining at the Crucible until at least 2045.

This ends a long period of uncertainty over the future home of the tournament, which was exacerbated in recent years when Matchroom president Barry Hearn stated on a number of occasions that it could move, possibly to Saudi Arabia.

Jim Callaghan was Prime Minister when the tournament was first played at the Crucible in 1977. Half a ­century on, another Labour PM, Sir Keir Starmer, helped to get the deal over the line for it to stay.

National and local government will provide £35m for the deal, with the extra £10m coming from philanthropic sources.

This feels like something of a ­victory for tradition. The sense of history at the Crucible is palpable. You can just feel it, in the same way you can at Lord’s or Wimbledon.

Even those who know little about snooker could tell you the name of Sheffield’s iconic venue. It is synonymous with the sport.

Everything has happened in that room. Alex Higgins crying for his baby daughter. Dennis Taylor waggling his finger and shaking his cue in the air. Jimmy White saying in 1994 about Stephen Hendry – in a wonderfully understated way – “He’s beginning to annoy me” after losing to the Scot for the fourth time in a final.

The hits have always kept coming. It was only four years ago that Ronnie O’Sullivan won a seventh world title and fell into the arms of Judd Trump, the embrace between the pair feeling like it would never end.

The World Championship has a happy habit of concocting its own brand of magic. Little wonder the British public retains its enthusiasm and affection for the event.

This year promises to be as ­compelling as ever, although there is a very clear and deserving favourite in Zhao Xintong. The 29-year-old Chinese star claimed the world title 12 months ago, shortly after returning to the sport following a ban for his involvement in snooker’s biggest ever match-fixing scandal.

In recent months, he has had his rivals running scared again, winning a treble of prestigious tournaments – the World Grand Prix, Players Championship and Tour Championship. Zhao’s ball-striking is impeccable, up there with anything the sport has ever seen, and he goes about his work with a calm assurance.

There is no doubt that there is a power shift away from the UK and towards China in the sport. That is evidenced by the fact that of the 32 players trying their luck at the Crucible, a record 11 are Chinese.

The “Class of 92” won’t go away, and frankly nobody wants them to. There will be question marks over whether O’Sullivan, John Higgins and Mark Williams – now in their 50s – have the stamina to go all the way in this most gruelling of marathons. But Williams did reach the final last year, and you would have to be foolhardy to rule them out.

There are strong contenders wherever you look. Mark Selby is a four-time winner of this event and one of the gutsiest competitors in all of sport. Kyren Wilson will hope ­history repeats itself. Just like two years ago, he failed to qualify for the Tour Championship. A well rested Wilson won the 2024 title.

World No1 Trump has been the sport’s most prolific winner of recent times, and would dearly love to put a second world crown on his CV, while 2005 winner Shaun Murphy has generally looked the part since he won his second Masters title 15 months ago.

With so many players in their 40s and 50s competing, victories in the final round of qualifying this week for two young Yorkshiremen, 19-year-old Stan Moody and 20-year-old Liam Pullen, has felt welcome.

Moody came through a titanic final qualifier against China’s Jiang Jun, making a break of 104 in the deciding frame for a 10-9 victory. His win was even more impressive when you consider he discharged himself from hospital the day before, having been struggling with tonsillitis.

Snooker officials have had to look at what’s happened in darts lately with envious eyes, as teenage sensation Luke Littler takes that sport to new frontiers. What snooker wouldn’t give for some of that stardust to be sprinkled in the days to come.

So get ready for snooker to take over the television schedules again. One voice will be missing of course. John Virgo, one of sport’s finest commentators, died in February, leaving a void that can’t be filled.

It was through a stroke of good fortune that the World Championship went to the Crucible in the first place.

The promoter of the 1977 tournament was former professional Mike Watterson. His wife Carole saw a play at the Crucible and suggested afterwards that the theatre could host snooker’s biggest event.

Thank heavens Carole went to see that play, and thank heavens Mike was listening. Snooker and the Crucible still feels like the perfect match.

Photograph by Nathan Stirk/Getty Images