World Snooker has announced it will stage another exciting competition this year – dubbed the sport’s answer to golf’s famous Ryder Cup.

Britain will take on host nation China in the ‘China v Britain Snooker Challenge’ taking place between November 23 and 25 this year – just before the start of the UK Championship.

The three-day  competition will comprise singles and double matches between the two teams. No details of players competing have been announced as yet. It will be held in Shenzhen in China.

The announcement comes several months after World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn suggested on Twitter that snooker’s answer to the Ryder Cup – which sees American golfers battle against their European counterparts every two years – was in the pipeline.

Picture by Monique Limbos

Hearn said: “We are delighted to be working with the promoter Record Shenzhen on this sanctioned event. It’s important for any successful sport to have a variety of formats and it will be fascinating to see how this team event can grow, perhaps one day becoming snooker’s equivalent of the Ryder Cup.

“With snooker’s popularity growing rapidly throughout Asia, we now have six events in China this season. Shenzhen proved to be an excellent location for this tournament last year and it will be a fantastic event for the players who make the teams.”

The first day will comprise singles matches involving all four players on the opening day, over the best of seven frames. Day two will have four doubles matches, each best of five frames. And on the final day there will be two singles matches, best of nine and best of 11, with the players to be picked by the team captains.

It was staged for the first time in 2017, when the five-man British team of Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark Williams, Graeme Dott, Joe Perry and Michael Holt beat China’s Ding Junhui, Liang Wenbo, Yan Bingtao, Zhou Yuelong and Zhao Xintong by an overall score of 26-9.

More information on players involved will be announced shortly.