Malta’s Alex Borg has been drawn to meet Simon Beford in the qualifying first round of the forthcoming 2006 World Championship.

The qualifying rounds are to be held at Pontin’s between 6 and 13 January. The finals of the event are to be played at The Crucible Theatre in Sheffield between 15 April and 1 May.

Simon Bedford is the same player who was beaten 5-1 by Malta’s leading professional Tony Drago last month in a qualifying match for the Masters tournament.

Meanwhile, Tony Drago still has to wait for the early first and second round matches to know his opponent in the third round of the event.

This could be either Darren Morgan or David Gilbert or Jamie Burnett who will meet the winner of the match between the former two to set the clash against Drago in the third round.