The Grove’s Zhang Anda will take on seven-times World Champion Stephen Hendry in the first round of the World Snooker Championships, on 17 April.
Anda told us: “I am very excited about the draw. Stephen Hendry is a snooker legend and it will be a dream and an honour to play him at the World Championships. I hope I will be able to give him a good game and I am looking forward to it very much.”
Ronnie O’Sullivan will meet another Chinese player, Liang Wenbo, in his first round …

Congratulations to the Grove’s Zhang Anda, who is currently on his best-ever run at the World Championship Qualifiers. Anda followed up wins against Craig Steadman, former World Champion John Parrott and Andrew Higginson with a 10-8 victory against provisional world no 16 Ricky Walden in the final qualifying round to reach the final stages at the Crucible to cap his very first year on the Main Tour.

Anda, who turned 18 on Christmas Day, was already celebrating as his win against world no 32 Andrew Higginson on Friday guaranteed his …

Grove player Matt Selt is 25 today and he’s coming to the end of his best ever season.
A professional since 2006, Matt made an important breakthrough at the start of the season by reaching the last 32 of the Shanghai Masters. He achieved this by winning four qualifying matches, ending with a 5-4 victory over Steve Davis. In Shanghai he faced John Higgins, losing 5-2. At the next qualifying event, for the Grand Prix, he recovered from 0-4 against Jordan Brown to win 5-4 and then went on to …

Friday 5 March:
A fantastic result for Anda today, beating Andrew Higginson 10-8. Anda started well with an early break of 114 to lead 6-3 at the interval. However, after winning the first game of the second session, Andrew then won five games in a row to lead 8-7. Anda held his nerve to take the last three games and complete the victory. The win gives Anda double reason to celebrate, as it confirms his place on the Main Tour for 2010/11.
Sadly Jin Long was not able …

The Grove is very happy to report that Liu Song has become the first Chinese player to attain the World Snooker Coaching badge.

Song said, “I’m delighted to become the first person from my country to attain such an accodale. Becoming a recognised coach under World Snooker’s programme is something that I have aimed for.”
Grove principals Django Fung and Paul Golder said, “We’re very pleased for Song as he shares our long-term ambitions in developing snooker worldwide.
“This is the first step towards achieving this and we look forward to him …