York snooker star Liam Pullen is taking on the world today (Tuesday).
Liam, 20, is making his debut at the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield after qualifying for the tournament for the first time.
He’s playing former quarter-finalist Chris Wakelin in the first round.
Currently the world no 86, Liam won four qualifying matches to reach the Crucible.
This has been his breakthrough season. He reached his first ranking quarter-final at the Xi’an Grand Prix. That run included a defeat of four-time World Champion John Higgins.
And in his Crucible qualifiers he was on course to make a maximum 147 break against Noppon Saengkham of Thailand. But he missed the 14th black on a score of 105.
Had he cleared up, he would have made a cool £147,000.
Liam’s fellow young Yorkshireman, 19-year-old Stan Moody, flew into a 7-3 lead against Kyren Wilson yesterday. But the 2024 World Champion then won the next seven frames to take the game 10-7.
Two times semi-finalist Mark Allen believes the pair are the future of the game.
Liam started playing on a small snooker table his grandma gave him for Christmas when he was six.
When he was ten, he played on a full-size snooker table for the first time. As he got older he would travel to Leeds to practice, turning professional aged just 17.
Liam’s honours include victory at the 2023 English Under-18 Championship and 2025 English Under-21 Championship, while he also finished top of the 2022/23 Under-21 Premier Junior Tour rankings. He is a former runner-up in the English Under-14 and Under-16 Championships.
He says it would be a dream to walk out in front of his home crowd at the York Barbican for the UK Snooker Championships in December.
But the biggest dream of all? Winning the world title of course…
At the time of publication, Chris Wakelin was leading 3-1 against Liam.
