The common link

[northerner]

Invitational. May have escaped the British media, but Stuart Pettman's book would certainly go a long way to answering the question.

[Odrl]

I've been thinking about this one again recently. Any chance you can give us another hint?

[northerner]

Not at all, in fact it didn't involve main tour competition at all, though all in the last 4 years.

[DawRef]

Their first match at the crucible or in another ranking event was against the current champion.

[northerner]

No - they were all most definitely involved in a professional capacity.

[circle]

Is it something to do with the World Amateur Championship?

[northerner]

Perhaps I should add that their common 'achievement' didn't happen on the main tour.

[northerner]

Not a complete list. You could certainly add Stuart Pettman and Mark Allen, but alas sadly not Stuart Bingham - he was in the same boat as Jimmy White, or perhaps I should say that due to circumstances neither of them were.

[Drac]

They have all beaten a defending champion in a final.. except Jimmy

[DawRef]

Have they all won a World Ranking Event at the first attempt?

[Odrl]

Can I set the next one?

Ding Junhui, Marco Fu, Michael Holt, Nigel Bond, David Roe, Daniel Wells, Liu Song, Xiao Guodong but sadly not Jimmy White

That's an interesting crop of players. Are they the only ones who share this link?

[Odrl]

That's my slow internet, that is. I had it hours ago... but Greene's draw wouldn't load.

Hehe, well done to missneworleans and yourself. The answer was indeed "they have all lost to Yu Delu in a ranking event".

Yu has quite the record in these wildcard matches, he's won four out of eight. He lost in the decider three times, to the players I mentioned above, and 5-3 to Ricky Walden. He also played in the Hainan Classic last week, with another couple of good victories over Walden and Ding. He missed the Shanghai Masters because of an illness, but he will be playing in the China Open against Greene. It will be interesting to see if he can win another one.

Tian Pengfei wasn't bad thinking either. His scalps include Mark Davis, David Gray and Andrew Higginson in wildcard rounds, as well as O'Sullivan and Fu in the last32 stages. His name is not on the list of wildcards for China, but with two places still to be announced, he just might get one of them.

Thanks for playing.

[northerner]

Can I set the next one?

Ding Junhui, Marco Fu, Michael Holt, Nigel Bond, David Roe, Daniel Wells, Liu Song, Xiao Guodong but sadly not Jimmy White

(assuming we were right about the last one that is....?)

[northerner]

They all lost to Ya Delu!
Nice quiz, but it was northerner who got the idea I just found a name.

And I spelled it better, so it's mine!

[northerner]

That's my slow internet, that is. I had it hours ago... but Greene's draw wouldn't load.