Father and Son Could Face Each Other in 2026 UK Championship Snooker Qualifiers
A father could play his son at the 2026 UK Championship snooker qualifiers later this month.
Peter and Oli Lines are on course to face each other in professional snooker’s second most prestigious ranking event, the UK Championship.
The main draw, televised stages of the first Triple Crown event of the season take place at the Barbican in York starting on Saturday 28th November, but before then is the drama of the qualifying rounds which are set for the Mattioli Arena in Leicester between the 21st to 26th.
In total, there are 144 contestants in this year’s £1.5 million UK Championship. The world’s top 16 ranked players all go straight through to the final rounds in York, but everyone else must attend the preliminaries at the Mattioli Arena where there are four rounds of action and 16 qualification tickets to meet the seeds in front of the BBC television cameras.
Experienced cueman Peter Lines - a quarter-finalist at the UK Championship in 2009 - doesn’t currently have a professional tour card, although is one of several amateur players who have earned an invite to the qualifiers through his recent results on the Q Tour, snooker’s secondary circuit.
Beginning his campaign at the first qualifying hurdle, 56-year-old Lines has been drawn to face 20-year-old Oliver Sykes who is a first-season professional on the World Snooker Tour.
If Lines senior defeats the rookie, he would then play his son Oli - the world number 54 - in the second qualifying round who is already seeded through to that stage.
The two Lines have played once before on the professional circuit, although that was in a much lower-profile event, the behind-closed-doors WST Pro Series during Covid in 2021 where son Oli won 2-0.
It’s not the first time that a father and son have met on snooker’s top-flight in a ranking event, though. Former world number three Neal Foulds defeated his dad Geoff, 5-0, in the last 32 of the 1986 International Open.
Elsewhere, whilst not a professional event, former PTC event winner Barry Pinches got the better of his son Luke at the 2018 Q School.
In terms of other family affairs on the green baize, brothers Joe and Fred Davis - two of snooker’s all-time most important figures - met many times in professional competition, including in the 1940 World Championship final.
To view the full qualifying draw for the 2026 UK Championship, visit here.