At different ends of careers, Judge and Hill set out on same Crucible journey

Michael Judge and Aaron Hill will begin their quest for a place at this year's World Snooker Championship tomorrow.

Judge is hoping to return to the Crucible later this month for the first time in 15 years, starting with a first to 10 frames match against Austria's Florian Nuessle. The Dubliner made the last of his three appearances at snooker's Mecca in 2008 and he thought his pro days were behind him when he fell off the tour in 2011.

But he kept playing away, winning a couple of national championships in Ireland, entering and then winning some events on the World Senior Tour, before getting within one match of a shock return to the Crucible as an amateur back in 2019.

His run, which was eventually stopped by James Cahill - who would go on to knock out Ronnie O'Sullivan that year - got him thinking that maybe there might be life in the old dog yet.

"I was playing the seniors tour, which I'd done quite well in, and I won the UK Seniors Championships in Hull, where I beat Jimmy White in the final," the 48-year-old says as he begins to explain his return.

"Ian Spawton, who is now a good friend of mine, and is my manager, text me in the run up to the 2021 Q School and asked me if I'd consider giving it a punt.

"A few weeks before that the thought had crossed my mind, after sitting on my backside for so long with Covid, maybe now was the time to give it a go again.

"We have a four-year-old boy and when he was born I had put any thoughts of a return to one side. But it had been on my mind, although I was considering doing it the next year, because, in those Covid times, I didn't think I'd be able to get enough practice in.

"But two friends of mine, Tony Corrigan and Andrew Campbell, who have tables in Blanchardstown, came through