Bradford professional Simon Bedford's dream of playing in the televised stage of the Embassy World Championship will become reality at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre next month.

Bedford extended his winning run in snooker's blue riband event to nine matches with a dramatic late-night 10-9 victory over Gary Wilkinson at Telford on Saturday.

Bedford, 22, started the season at 215 in the world rankings and is the lowest ranked player to qualify for this year's £1,323,000 event.

And his win means that Bradford will now have three players in the star-studded line-up. Jason Prince, who beat Martin Clark on Friday 10-8 to qualify and James Wattana, the world no 13 seed - both colleagues of Bedford's at Allerton's Cuedos Snnoker Club.

A fourth West Yorkshire player - Leeds's Peter Lines, 28, shrugged off the after-effects of pneumonia to qualify by beating former world semi-finalist Steve James 10-6. But Regal Welsh Masters champion Paul Hunter failed to make it. He went down 10-8 to Romford's Mark King.

But it was Bedford's win which captured the attention. Having led 8-3, left-hander Bedford saw his lead wiped out as 1991 World Matchplay champion Wilkinson fought back to level at 9-9.

When world No 17 Wilkinson, potted the final blue it looked all over, but he was unlucky to snooker himself on the pink and unluckier still to leave it over a pocket when his escape attempt failed.

Bedford knocked in the pink and was delighted to be through to the final phase after a marathon lasting nine hours and ten minutes - the ninth longest best-of-19 frames match in snooker history.

It is the second time that Fairweather Green-based Bedford had survived a last-frame decider in the tournament in four matches.

He led Mark Gray 9-4 at Blackpool's Norbreck Castle Hotel in January in the 12th of the 15 qualifying rounds, was pulled back to 9-9, but clinched it with a break of 73.

"It's a dream come true to get there and I'm thrilled at battling so hard to get through the qualifying," said Bedford.

"Gary played really well to come back, but I just held on and can't wait for The Crucible.

Bedford, who won the UK Tour event in Swindon last month for players ranked outside the top 96, added: "I've now won 16 matches in a row and the support I had on Saturday from my family and friends from Cuedos Snooker Club in Bradford was fantastic.

"With James Wattana and Jason Prince, who both also play at the club, its a great feeling to have pulled off this treble. I never thought I would come this far when I began at Manchester last December. I don't care who I draw now. I'm going to enjoy playing on television and I can honestly say that I can't wait to break off at Sheffield."

Bedford will discover which top 16 player he will face at The Crucible when the draw is made on BBC TV's Grandstand programme next Saturday.

Doing the honours will be Lord Archer, president of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, and Karen Corr, the women's world counterpart

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