Kettering's Kyren ready to fly the flag at World Cup

Kyren Wilson will be representing England alongside Jack Lisowski at the Snooker World Cup next week

The world number eight will join forces with world number 11 Jack Lisowski to take on 23 other teams in the invitational event in China.

The World Cup is staged every two years and Wilson and Lisowski will be hoping to take England one step further than in 2017 when the pairing of Judd Trump and Barry Hawkins were beaten 4-3 by the Chinese team of Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo in the final.

England have been placed in Group B for the round robin stage and will start their campaign against Hong Kong on Monday with the top two from the four groups going through to compete in the quarter-finals.

“It’s going to be a unique experience and it’s nice to be able to represent your country instead of yourself for once,” the Kettering cueman said.

“Jack and I are the same sort of age so we came through the junior ranks together, it’s good to see him doing so well.

“I think the last time we represented our country would have been when we were 15 or 16 so it’s great to get that chance again.

“I think it’s also good that two of the younger lads are getting the opportunity.

“It’s another trip to China and both of us have had good results out there and hopefully we can get things going and we will try to bring the World Cup home.”

Wilson has enjoyed a solid start to the new season after he qualified for both the Kaspersky Riga Masters and the International Championship.

He knocked in three half-century breaks to be Fergal O’Brien 4-1 in his qualifier for the Riga Masters, which gets under way on July 26.

And he followed that up by seeing off Brandon Sergeant 6-4 to seal his spot in the International Championship in China from August 4.

“It’s been a bit of an odd one because the season has started a bit earlier with these qualifiers and I have not really been practising that much,” he added.

“So I am really pleased to have got through both of them. The performances weren’t the best but I managed to get the job done and that’s all that matters.”

Wellingborough’s Jamie O’Neill marked his return to the World Tour by qualifying for the Riga Masters with an eye-catching 4-1 victory over world number nine Barry Hawkins with O’Neill firing in fine breaks of 120 and 101 in the process.

But he was unable to secure a place in the International Championship as he was beaten 6-1 by Stephen Maguire in the qualifying stage.

Raunds’ Harvey Chandler, meanwhile, will play world number one Mark Selby in his qualifying match for the Riga Masters but that has been held over until the event itself on July 26.

But Chandler missed out on a place in the International Championship after going down 6-2 to Martin Gould in their clash in the qualifiers.