Fri Feb 26 12:13PM

The World Championship qualifiers start today (Friday) and it is a nervous time for many of the players on the tour.

I'm practising with fellow Leicester player Ben Woollaston today and he was telling me he needs to win two matches to guarantee his place on the professional tour.

His first match is on Monday so I'm going to go down and watch him play and hopefully he will get the results he needs to remain on it.

In snooker you cannot spend too much time hoping for your friends to do well, as you have to look after your own game - but I also hope Michael Holt can qualify and then have a good run at the Crucible.

Michael's a practice partner of mine and still has an outside chance of sneaking a place in the top 16. He hasn't done great in the last couple of tournaments but if he goes far in Sheffield he can sneak in - and he is certainly more than capable of doing that.

When the main tournament comes along it would also be nice to see another practice partner, Joe Perry, do well as he is currently outside of the provisional top 16 and in danger of losing his place.

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The recent news that Stephen Lee was arrested for illegal betting came as a big shock to me.

I do not think there is a problem with betting in the sport but if these types of stories keep coming out then maybe there is something going on that needs to be looked at.

I'm very surprised that Stephen's name came up though. He is a really nice chap and I've heard absolutely nothing about him being involved in anything in the past on tour, no rumours or anything.

He is still playing at the top level and is more than capable of beating anyone on his day, so I can't see any reason why he would have engaged in any of the alleged activities. 

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I've just come back for a holiday with my girlfriend to Dubai and it was a really good experience. It was my first time going out there and I'd definitely go back - but boy was it expensive! The cheque I won at the Masters certainly helped but it didn't mean it wasn't painful!

I think it was a good time to go away and recharge the batteries. Of course you can lose a little edge if you go away during the season but there is a fair bit of a break between the last tournament, the Welsh Open, and the next, the China Open - which does not take place until the end of March. I'm back practising now so I've given myself plenty of time to get ready for China.

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Before Dubai I was in Vienna for an exhibition with Shaun Murphy, Ronnie O'Sullivan and Steve Davis.

I played Shaun in a best of five - he beat me 3-1 - and then we all played a bit of speed snooker.

It was good, as it always is these days when we go to mainland Europe. There were at least 1,500 people there and it just showed again how popular the game is in that part of the world.