Just for fun, I'm going to attempt to predict the first round draw. Let's see how many I get right (or not)

Stuart Bingham v Ryan Day
Mark Selby v Robbie Williams
Shaun Murphy v Robert Milkins
Neil Robertson v Sam Baird
Judd Trump v Zhang Anda
Ronnie O'Sullivan v Peter Ebdon
Mark Allen v Alan McManus
John Higgins v Ali Carter
Ricky Walden v Anthony McGill
Joe Perry v Kyren Wilson
Barry Hawkins v Mitchell Mann
Martin Gould v LIang Wenbo
Mark Williams v Graeme Dott
Marco Fu v David Gilbert
Michael White v Michael Holt
Stephen Maguire v Ding Junhui

World Snooker Championship Draw in bracket order

Stuart Bingham (1) v Ali Carter (31)

Stephen Maguire (16) v Alan McManus (29)

Ricky Walden (9) v Robbie Williams (57)

John Higgins (8) v Ryan Day (20)

Judd Trump (5) v Liang Wenbo ( 18)

Martin Gould (12) v Ding Junhui (17)

Mark Williams (13) v Graeme Dott (24)

Neil Robertson (4) v Michael Holt (28)

Shaun Murphy (3) v Anthony McGill (30)

Marco Fu (14) v Peter Ebdon (32)

Barry Hawkins (11) v Zhang Anda (71)

Ronnie O’Sullivan (6) v Dave Gilbert (22)

Mark Allen (7) v Mitchell Mann (74)

Joe Perry (10) v Kyren Wilson (19)

Michael White (15) v Sam Baird (59)

Mark Selby (2) v Robert Milkins (21)

Some tough matches there

Bingham v Carter & Gould v Ding look like ties of the round.

Interesting one Trump v Wenbo, Liang beat Judd in the UK this season didn't he...

My just for fun predictions actually got two of the draws correct.

So as it stands for the matches I'm going to:

Saturday - Fu v Ebdon, Maguire v McManus
Tuesday - Selby v Milkins, Higgins v Day

Plug for the annual competition:

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2146545

The only thing that really matters, when is O Sullivans first match?

First session 2:30pm on Sunday, 2nd session Monday morning 10am

I am counting down the minutes until he inevitably does or says something childish, petulant or 'controversial'.

I will not have to wait too long I expect.

I've updated the Zawtowers 2016 World Snooker Championship FAQ with all the first round draw now, so should help with the "who's playing who when?" questions.

A PDF is available on the same page to download to have it to hand too.

Can't wait for worlds to start. So glad I've booked week off work for final week of it. Some interesting match ups too.

Yeah its a good draw isn't it ? Think I am looking forward to Dott V Williams the most in the first round. Too players I have always liked. Neither mess about and both gritty pros.

Bingham v carter looks like it could be a close one. Both seem to have found some form. Ding v gould is another that could go either way although if ding finds his best form then he could do well in the tournament.

Some cracking matches. There's a lot of experience amongst those qualifiers. Fancy a good few of them to beat the seed.

Thanks. I'm just going to enjoy him while he's still at the top of his game, I worry as to who will take over from him. I first got into snooker in the 90s watching Jimmy, then Ronnie took the attitude and entertainment helm from him, as Jimmy took it from Higgins. Who the hell is gonna take it after Ronnie, they're all such good players but they do not have that something else that Ronnie has when you watch him play, he's like watching poetry when he's on it! The others are just, well, boring.

Are they ? You find a man who makes 100 century breaks a season boring ? He is pure class. Selby has the all round game. Murphy when potting well is superb to watch and as for Judd Trump, he is very entertaining when on his game. Not denying Ronnie isn't but snooker isn't just crash, bang, wallop. I just wish Ronnie cared about the fans as much as they did about him.

If anyone's interested (stuck them on record) there's classic crucible games during the early hours 20 past 3 on bbc1 every day from sunday morning

Forgot about your little place on the web. Fascinating as ever

Great spot J.

Some matches that are coming up on that here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b078hxzr/episodes/guide

Most people will have sussed this but just in case anyone hasn't - these aren't full matches. They're those BBC doc style look backs and highlight reels. Still be good to watch if I'm up at 3.45 in the ****ing morning? So probably not.

Seems a bit daft they can find time in the middle of the night for these but not evening hours time for the evening sessions. Online and red button are going to get a hammering.

Don't forget if you are a Freeview only user and have a Smart TV, the BBC Sport app on there will also have both tables streamed there, which you can switch to as you need. I've done that myself, works really well.

Also do note that a chunk of Saturday afternoon's coverage is on BBC1, not BBC2, easy to miss!!

BBC has to try and please everyone, snooker and non snooker fans. They will get thousands of complaints regardless. They cannot win.

Checked my tickets for tomorrow (heading up North tonight) and in Row A for both sessions.

I've got Fu - Ebdon in seat A11 (to the right of the players as you look) and in the afternoon I've got Maguire - McManus in seat A31 (far right of the bottom right cushion). But most likely for the morning I'll be visible on telly...

We play 'Spot The Regular' when we watch

Brian
Mrs Brian
Brians Dad
Richie Benaud
Normal Collier
Maggie Thatcher
The Aussie bloke
Serial Killer

And now we have Steve the Welshguy who i sat near at the UK in York. Always sits on the end of an aisle, has his coat on and takes a huge bag of food with him.

This might get a bit more difficult this year. Most of those regulars had season tickets that entitled them to attend every session of the crucible matches for a bargain price and WS basically gave them as a "for life thing" - and then quickly stopped when the realised the entire crucible would be filled up with season ticket holders. Front Row Chris has recently confirmed on twitter that those are no longer being honoured as of this tournament. Most of them will still be in attendance but will not be at every session.