GREEN-baize queens from around the globe will this week descend on Bury St Edmunds for the Greene King World Ladies Snooker Championship.

It’s the first time the Suffolk market town has hosted the World Ladies Billiards & Snooker Association’s season finale which starts at the Pot Black Sports Bar on Friday and runs until next Wednesday.

Red-hot favourite Reanne Evans will be looking to land her eighth world championship and extend her 84-match unbeaten run on the WLBSA circuit.

Her possible rivals for the crown include Ronnie O’Sullivan’s cousin, Maria Catalano, Hong Kong’s impressive 20-year-old Ng On Yee, the 2009 and 2010 IBSF Women’s World Champion, and two-time world billiards champion Chitra Magimairaj, who jets in from India.

Local favourites Kim O’Brien (Bury St Edmunds) and Fran Calvert (Lowestoft) are also in the line-up.

Favourite to clinch a fourth straight junior title is the phenomenal 14-year-old Derby schoolgirl Hannah Jones, the world number six.

Main tour professionals, Joe Perry, Michael Holt and Martin Gould, make guest appearances on Friday in the World Mixed Pairs, which kicks off six days of top-quality action.