Day Of Reckoning

The world No 6 admits he is short on practice hours, so hopes to get some vital competitive matches under his belt when he competes in the second event of the new Pro Challenge Series at Pontin's in Prestatyn.

Welshman Day faces Peter Lines in the first round of the two-day tournament, which will be the first World Snooker event played with a Super Sixes format.

"I've not played much, so I want to cram in as much as I can over the next ten days," said 29-year-old Day. "I spoke to Stephen Maguire, who won the first Pro Challenge event, and he said it was a good way of getting involved in tough matches. Hopefully I can hit the ground running and get a few games under my belt.

"After that I'll be practising hard to be ready for Shanghai, and ideally I'll be able to continue my decent record in China," added the player who was runner-up to Dominic Dale in the Roewe Shanghai Masters in 2007 and has reached the semi-finals of the last two China Opens.

Summing up last season, Day said: "It was satisfactory. I let slip an opportunity to win the final of the Grand Prix and another in the semis in Beijing. I lost in both of those to John Higgins and felt that I let those matches get away from me. Losing to Mark Allen in the quarter-finals at the Crucible was also really disappointing, I should have played better at the start of the match.

"My aims for the season are to improve on my current ranking, and to get involved in the business end of tournaments. If I keep doing that, then I will win one before long."

One of Day's regular practice partners is Mark Williams, who is currently nursing a broken arm, but amazingly managed to beat former pro Andrew Pagett 5-1 while playing with a cast on his bridging arm. Day is steering well clear of the two-times World Champion.

"If Mark challenged me to a game now, I'd be off my head to accept," said Day. "If he beat me one-handed, he'd never let me forget about it."