james o'brien— fergal o'brien hasjust the match on bbc two. s mine— two. the comeback starts here! this year marks 40 years of the crucible venue, the world champion is to be crowd in 16 days' time. british players have started well today and have traditionally dominated the event. we've gone from essex debating to find out if that will continue. for almost half a century places like this have helped britain produce a steady stream of words with the champions. but now inspired by the success of ding junhui there's a new superpower on the rise that threatens to sweep away the old guard. the growth in china in the last ten years as i've been coming is staggering. if we don't professionalise the junior and amateur games in britain we are going to fall way behind. more than 70 million people play cue sports in china every week and this is where the top young snooker players train. in the four years since this academy opened three players have qualified for the main snooker tour, including gambling towel. he beat the world champion mark selby at thi

the defending champion mark selby will face fergal o'brien and the five—time champion ronnie o'sullivanwilson. coverage from the crucible is across the bbc. it's the a0th year the crucible in sheffield has hosted the event, as mark ansell reports. he is breathing heavily as he comes down to this final pink. that is it, the world snooker champion, 1981. over the last a0 years there have been many magic moments at the crucible. 26. fast forward 32 years and today cliff thorburn made the draw for the tournament. he won it in 1980 draw for the tournament. he won it in1980 and draw for the tournament. he won it in 1980 and feels sheffield is the spiritual home of snooker.|j in 1980 and feels sheffield is the spiritual home of snooker. ijust cannot believe how wonderful place this is. it is perfect for snooker. there are two tables. i cannot say anything else, but this is america. if we look at the commercial value of the reputation and image of sheffield that goes around the world, it is the bargain basement plays of the season. the commercial value of the event, they are making a huge profi

defending champion mark selby thrashed qualifier fergal o'brien in his opening match at the world snookerne threatened a whitewash as he wrapped up victory by 10 frames to 2. he now has almost a week off before his second round match when he'll play either wales‘ ryan day or china's xiao gudong. ronnie o'sullivan is finding things a little more difficult in his first round match. he was 5—1 up at one point with this, the first century break of this year's tournament — but qualifier gary wilson has battled back and is now only a frame behind. that match will conclude this afternoon — you can follow that across the bbc. now, there was a bit of a fright in store for england's after his stray tee shot from the tenth hole at the rbc heritage in south carolina. this alligator was lying in wait clearly eager for a slice of the action. poulter had to take penalty drop for his ball going into the water and was worried the alligator might snatch his club, or maybe something more substantial... webb simpson's caddy managed to scare the reptile away. poulter unsurprisingly double bogied the hole. but

the defending champion mark selby will face fergal o'brien who won a deciding frame of more than twom the crucible is across the bbc. jenson button looks set to replace fernando alonso for next month's monaco grand prix. alonso is skipping the race to take part in the indy 500. button retired from formula one at the end of last season but is contracted to mclaren as a reserve driver. that's all sport for now. you can keep up to date with all those stories on the bbc sport website. that's bbc.co.uk/sport. and i'll have more in sportsday at half past six. the education secretary, justine greening, says she wants a new model of grammar schools in england which are open for everyone. she says she particularly wants to make sure there are stronger educational outcomes for what she refers to as ordinary working families and not just the privileged few. but new analysis from the government shows a majority of selective school places go to more affluent families. joining me now from our westminster studio is the chairman of the education select committee, neil carmichael, a conservative who

mark selby, the dividing champion, up against fergal o'brien, who was involved in that record—breakingt year. the longest frame in history, two hours, three minutes, a1 seconds. no problems for selby today, in com plete problems for selby today, in complete control. that is all the sport from now. let's get the weather forecast. time to update you on the weather prospects for the holiday weekend. it was going to be something of a mixed bag, just a little bit cool in the breeze. there will be sunny spells around, some rain as well, and that message is a whole has not changed. the rest of saturday proving to be one of the better days of the weekend. accommodation of sunny spells and showers —— a combination. we come further south, it is essentially a dry picture. word to the wise about scotland, the cause of you get into the high ground, things will be decidedly wintry. the wind will be strong, will force, very strong gusts, so the wind—chill quite a factor. at lower levels, sunny spells and showers, northern ireland, the north of england. further south, the odd shower that you may have

mark selby begins the defence of his world title against fergal o'brien.e trophy for the second time last year with victory over china's ding junhul o'brien came through qualifying with a final—frame win over david gilbert, which included the longest frame played in professional snooker history — two hours, three minutes and 41 seconds. you can see there, selby is 5—0 up. on the other table there's an all scottish tie between anthony mcgill and stephen maguire. maguire has just taken the lead in that match 3—2. super—lightweight champion ricky burns will look to retain his world title tonight against unbeaten julius indongo in glasgow. burns is already, the first scottish boxer, to have won world titles, at three different weights. a warning — there is some flash photography coming up. for me this is the biggest fight of my career. unification fights have been talked about for so long. super feather and lightweight. i superfeather and lightweight. i am very excited and i am very excited, with the crowd that will be coming along. now on bbc news, it's click

on the opening day of this year's event, selby beat fergal o'brien 10—2.fier gary wilson. the five—time world champion scored the first century break of this year's world championship and was leading 5—1 at one point. but wilson battled back, winning three frames in a row and now trails by only one — 5—4 the score to o'sullivan at the moment. that match concludes tomorrow afternoon — it's first to ten. a mercedes driver is on pole position for tomorrow's bahrain grand prix, but it isn't lewis hamilton. his new team mate this season, valtteri bottas, snatched the front spot byjust two hundredths of a second in qualifying. it's the first pole of the finn's career. hamilton will start from second on the grid, with ferrari's sebastian vettel third. that's all the sport for now. i'll have more in the next hour. james, thank you. everton football club has banned sun newspaper journalists from its ground following an article written by the paper's columnist and former editor kelvin mackenzie. in it he compared the intelligence of everton footballer ross barkley t

the defending champion mark selby will face fergal o'brien. on the tables. and the five—time champion ronnie o'sullivan will play gary wilson. coverage from the crucible is across the bbc. that's all the sport for now. the men's scratch race continues on bbc two with a0 odd laps to go. coverage also on the bbc sport website. i will be back with possibly a result on that in the next hour. would rather people said watching this to be honest, but thank you! you're watching bbc news with simon mccoy. the education secretary justine greening says she wants a new model of grammar schools in england which are open for everyone. she says she particularly wants to make sure there are stronger educational outcomes for what she refers to as ordinary working families and not just the privileged few. but new analysis from the government shows a majority of selective school places go to more affluent families. justine greening says she wants to create schools that are "truly open to all". i believe selection in new, 21st—century state grammar schools will a

the defending champion mark selby will face fergal o'brien.he crucible is across the bbc. that is all the sport for now. a bit more in the next hour. a bit more? a bit! thanks! now, yes, right! it's me! president assad claims that the there was no use of chemical weapons by his regime. even if we had them, we would not use them. we have never used our chemical arsenal in our history. so what happened? we cannot ta ke history. so what happened? we cannot take it seriously, but our information is that the united states are hand in glove with the terrorists and fabricated the story. it is one event, stage one, the play that we saw on the social networking and on tv, and the propaganda. stage two, with a military attack. that is what we believe is happening, because it's only 48 hours between the play and the attacks. no investigations, no concrete evidence about anything. the only things were allegations, propaganda, and the air strike. so, who, according to you, is responsible about this alleged chemical attack? al-qaeda. we don't have too inves

defending champion mark selby thrashed qualifier fergal o'brien in his opening match at the world snookerek off before his second round match when he'll play either wales' ryan day or china's xiao goo—dong. ronnie o'sullivan is finding things a little more difficult in his first round match. he was 5—1 up at one point with this, the first century break of this year's tournament, but qualifier gary wilson has battled back and is now only a frame behind. that match will conclude this afternoon — you can follow that across the bbc. thank you very much, hugh. an attempted missile test by north korea has capped off on the most eventful weeks in foreign events in yea rs. as eventful weeks in foreign events in years. as crisis talks on syria, an aborted trip by borisjohnson and us bombing in afghanistan also made headlines. but speaking out to the former foreign secretary. thank you former foreign secretary. thank you for your time this morning. first of all, the missile test that appears to fell by north korea. can we breathe a sigh of relief? well, the first question is why it failed. it could

defending champion mark selby thrashed qualifier fergal o'brien in his opening match at the world snookerhe now has almost a week off before his second round match when he'll play either wales' ryan day or china's xiao goo—dong. ronnie o'sullivan is finding things a little more difficult in his first round match. he was 5—1 up at one point with this — the first century break of this year's tournament — but qualifier gary wilson has battled back and is now only a frame behind. that match will conclude this afternoon — you can follow that across the bbc. now, there was a bit of a fright in store for england's after his stray tee shot from the tenth hole at the rbc heritage in south carolina. this alligator was lying in wait clearly eager for a slice of the action. poulter had to take penalty drop for his ball going into the water and was worried the alligator might snatch his club, or maybe something more substantial... webb simpson's caddy managed to scare the reptile away. poulter unsurprisingly double bogied the hole. but he ended his round just three shots off jason dufner‘s lead on ten

the defending champion mark selby will face fergal o'brien.on button looks set to replace fernando alonso for next month's monaco grand prix. alonso is skipping the race to take part in the indy 500. button retired from formula one at the end of last season, but is contracted to mclaren as a reserve driver. that's all sport for now. will have more in the next hour. it will be good to see a winner! syria's president assad has given his first interview since last week's suspected chemical weapons attack. he's said reports of the attack by his forces are "100% fabricated". he's also claimed that syria's military has given up all chemical weapons. so there was no order to make any attack. we don't have any chemical weapons. we gave up our arsenal two years ago. even if we had them, we wouldn't use them, and we have never used our chemical arsenal in our history. so what happened? as i said, the only source is al-qaeda. we cannot take it seriously, but our impression is that the west, mainly the united states, is hand in glove with the terrorists.

mark selby, the defending job and will face fergal 0'brien defending job and will face fergal o'brien it's the second day of the track cycling world championships in hong kong — coverage is on bbc two at midday. britain's elinor barker was pipped to gold yesterday in the women's scratch race. barker won team pursuit olympic gold last summer. the men are in the bronze medal race in the team pursuit. that's all the sport for now. much more on the bbc news channel in the next hour. let's return to our main story this morning. the education secretary justine greening has defended plans to push ahead with new grammar schools in england, saying she wants to create schools that are "truly open to all". she has been speaking in the past half an hour. i believe selection in new, 21st—ce ntu ry i believe selection in new, 21st—century state grammar schools will add to the options available to young people, to truly help make the most of their talents. i don't accept the arguments from those who critique grammars and selection, while simultaneously ignoring the views of parents. 0n the one hand,