The popular and prestigious John Smiths sponsored Merseyside Professional Championship is a fascinating guide to early season form, as last season's event proved with winner Stephen Maguire, going on to a very successful season, which included his first ranking title and an appearance at the Crucible.

World No. 24 Maguire lines up to defend his title, but Joe Perry, the World No. 20 heads the quality field. More than half the field is made up of Main Tour Professionals, including Stuart Bingham, who wowed audiences last year with a 147 maximum break, an achievement which earned him 147 cans of John Smiths. A nice prize but Bingham had considerable problems in stashing his prize into the boot of his car.

Two of last season's injury hit players return, with two good arms and legs, to try and get their season off to a better start. Leo Fernandez played the first half of last season on crutches, having broken his leg, and Dave Harold missed the end of the season, after he broke his wrist in a New Year's Eve accident.

Harold started brightly with a typically gritty 5-4 win over Justin Astley. Harold contributed a run of 105, while Astley, who competes on the Challenge Tour, chipped in with 110 and 98 in consecutive frames.

The first major casualty was Barry Pinches. The World No. 21 might have finished his season in style at the Crucible, but he certainly didn't start in style in Liverpool today, crashing out to a 5-0 defeat by home town boy Stephen Croft, who finished last season at No. 122 in the rankings, and demotion to the Challenge Tour.

Also in the draw are some Main tour debutants, including Ben Woollaston, Sean O'Neill and Adam Davies. It will be interesting to see how they fare against higher ranked opposition.

Monday to Thursday will see the draw played down in sections to get the eight quarter-finalists, who will play down to the winner, on Friday.

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