FORMER snooker world champion Dennis Taylor will seek to inspire a group of teenagers – and maybe find a future successor.

More than 45 youngsters who use The Zone in Rawtenstall will meet the green baize legend at North Lancashire Training Group offices in Jacob Street, Accrington, next week.

It is the former Elite snooker club which Mr Taylor and fellow world champion Alex Higgins used as their base in their glory years of the 1980s.

The session is taking place there because their normal base at The Zone, the Old Fire Station on Burnley Road in Rawtenstall, is being refurbished.

The ‘Dennis Taylor Snooker Day’ for Rossendale young people aged between 13 and 19 will take place next Wednesday.

Organised by Lancashire County Council's Young People’s Service and the Paul Hunter Foundation, it will be an opportunity for people to meet the snooker star who won the thrilling 1985 snooker world championship final against Steve Davis on the final black.

Between 45 and 55 teenagers will attend and will each be presented with a signed snooker cue. Mr Taylor, 63, who lived in Blackburn for 32 years before moving to North Wales in 2002, said: “I do a lot for the Paul Hunter Foundation.

“This is a great opportunity to inspire young people to play snooker and, who knows, find a future world champion.”

County young people’s boss Matthew Tomlinson said: “This is a great opportunity for young people from Rossendale to meet a snooker legend.”

In addition to snooker, there will be table tennis and table football competitions.

The foundation remembers three-time snooker Masters champion Paul Hunter who died tragically and suddenly from cancer in 2006 at 27.

SNOOKER LOOPY

  • Born in January 1949 in Coalisland, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, he turned professional in 1972.
  • He is best known for winning the 1985 World Championship at the age of 36, beating world number one Steve Davis on the final black.
  • He also won the Grand Prix in 1984 and the Masters in 1987.
  • He is also well known for his sense of humour and his trademark oversized, upside-down spectacles.
  • During his most successful period he lived in and around Blackburn for 32 years before moving to North Wales in 2002.
  • He performed on the hit single with Chas & Dave, ‘Snooker Loopy’, which peaked at five in the UK singles chart.
  • He is now a key part of the BBC snooker commentary team.