Shropshire snooker star Adrian Gunnell has a “dream” in his grasp this weekend – the chance to set up a home town meeting with the Rocket, Ronnie O’Sullivan.

Gunnell begins his quest to qualify for the final stages of the UK Championship tomorrow, which begin at Telford’s International Centre next weekend.

The Telford cueman would love nothing more than to face O’Sullivan in his own backyard, and that is the prize on offer should he win two qualifying matches over the next three ays.

He will face Thailand’s Atthasit Mahitthi tomorrow in a best-of-17 frame encounter at Prestatyn.

The winner of that faces the daunting prospect of meeting Matthew Stevens on Monday for the right to qualify for Telford.

Former world No 4 Stevens is regarded as one of the most talented players at the qualifiers having won the UK Championship in 2003 and reached two World Championship finals.But Gunnell did beat Stevens 9-7 to qualify for the UK Championship in 2007.

“The two games I would have to win will both be very tough but I will give it everything because to play Ronnie at Telford would be a dream,” said the 36-year-old.

“It’s the big games you want to play in and it wouldn’t get much bigger for me than playing Ronnie in my own backyard.

“It would be a big occasion but I can’t even think about that yet.”

Gunnell has made a reasonable start to the new campaign but has yet to reach the final stages of a ranking tournament in 2009.

And the player currently provisionally ranked 46th in the world is aware he needs a good run in the sport’s second biggest tournament.

“Three are big ranking tournaments up for grabs so to win the first game is vital and then hopefully I can push on from there,” added Gunnell, who has been struggling with a back problem at the last month but has seen his condition improve in recent days.

By JAMES GARRISON