By Richard Preen

World Ranking: 63
Date Of Birth: 12/11/73
Form: R48/R48/Q/R16/R32
World Championship best: Last 32 - 1997

Gerard Greene will make his second career appearance at the Crucible after progressing through three qualifying matches at the seaside resorts of Blackpool and Torquay.

In Blackpool he overcame David Brown Gilbert 10-7 followed by a convincing 10-4 victory against Marcus Campbell.

His result in Torquay was an emphatic 10-3 demolition of Anthony Hamilton which will have surely surprised the snooker fraternity.

His previous Crucible appearance arrived in 1997 when he was slightly overawed against an in-form John Higgins losing 10-2.

This season has been a revelation for the Kent cueman who has enjoyed considerable success.

The highlight has been a quarter-final appearance at the LG Cup in Preston where he lost narrowly to Jimmy Michie 5-4.

This equalled his previous best tournament run when he reached the quarter-finals of the UK Championships in 1997.

He has consistently progressed to the last 16 and 32 stages of the majority of other events this season.

These performances have seen a provisional ranking improvement of 22 places equalling his previous highest position of 41.

With the World Championships still to play for, there is no reason why Greene will not achieve an all time high.