THE biggest snooker tournament ever to hit the Island is being staged at Fort Regent this weekend – and it will be transmitted live around the world.

Four professional and four amateur cueists are competing in the Jersey round of the inaugural World Series of Snooker tournament – all with the intention of winning through to the final in Germany later this year.

Professionals John Higgins, Mark Selby, Shaun Murphy (pictured) and Ken Doherty – possibly four of the finest snooker players in the world at the present time – will be featuring in best-of-seven frames matches against Jersey’s Aaron Canavan and Gary Britton, Guernsey’s Martin Desperques and Poland’s Rafal Jewtuch.

The tournament is going to be a massive challenge to the amateurs as three of the pros are former World champions with the other being a beaten finalist.

Selby will play in the opening match at Fort Regent at 11.15 am on Saturday against Jewtuch. They will then be followed by Britton and Doherty. The evening session opens with Desperques against Murphy and then Canavan opposes Higgins in a match that will be broadcast live to 114 million homes over 59 countries by Eurosport.