RETURNING Bradford pool icon Karl Boyes is up first, after the draw for the inaugural ultimatepool.tv Players Championship was made.

He will take part in week one, on the weekend of July 30/31, going up against Andy Williams, Brian Halcrow, Dylan Leary, Shane Thompson and Jimmy Croxton.

Keighley star Chris Melling is in action the following week, with his group containing Chris Day, Connor Jones, Jordan Shepherd, Harriet Haynes and Greg Batten.

Arfan Dad is a fellow Keighley native of Melling, and he is in Group 6, which won't be played until September 10/11.

Alongside Dad will be Christophe Lambert, Oly Bale, Shaun Chipperfield, Rob Wharne and Richie Oliver.

Recently announced and added to the Ultimate Pool circuit, this new professional ranking event will feature 48 players, initially split into eight groups of six during the opening phase which takes place across eight consecutive weekends.

Each Saturday during the groups phase will see 15 round robin matches all played on one main arena table before knockout action the following day.

The top four from each group will go through to the Sunday knockout action, with first playing fourth, and second against third, before a final between the winners of those two semis.

The overall winner on each weekend will then progress to an eight-person finals weekend in November, which will be a straight knockout competition.