World Championship snooker 2022: Crucible qualifying is cut-throat scene of broken dreams, but who misses out?

On the same weekend the 174th Grand National was run over the arduous fences of Aintree, there were plenty of early fallers in snooker's perilous World Championship qualifiers at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. The final round of qualifiers – when 16 players join the 16 top seeds in Thursday morning's draw (11am BST LIVE on Eurosport) for the first round of the sport's main event – has been dubbed 'Judgement Day', but it is actually held over two days, Tuesday 12 April and Wednesday 13 April this week, to determine who will appear at the city's nearby Crucible Theatre.

Ad/> As we have witnessed over the past few days, it does not take much for a fancied form horse to fall before the first. World ChampionshipWorld Championship qualifiers — Latest results, scores, schedule3 HOURS AGO Ricky Walden lost 6-4 to Allan Taylor (Third qualifying round) Arguably the biggest shock of the qualifiers came with the in-form Walden's loss to Taylor on Saturday.

The world No. 17 Walden would have already been at the Crucible as one of the top 16 seeds if he had won the Gibraltar Open last month but a 4-3 loss to Kyren Wilson in the semi-finals forced him to survive two rounds at the English Institute of Sport.

/> He failed to successfully negotiate one as world No. 80 Taylor, clearly in stroke having edged out Michael Judge 6-5 on the final black in the previous round, came up with arguably the finest triumph of his jobbing career.