A WORLD championship final appearance was the last thing Jan Hughes expected to achieve at last week’s showpiece event -having hardly picked up a cue since November.

A WORLD championship final appearance was the last thing Jan Hughes expected to achieve at last week’s showpiece event -having hardly picked up a cue since November.

Veteran Hughes, who is from St Neots, reached the final of the over-40s seniors event at the Greene King World Ladies Snooker Championship in Bury St Edmunds.

After coming from behind to beat Pam Wood 3-1 in the quarter-finals, Hughes then went on to beat Marianne Williams 3-2 in the semis to set up a final showdown with Kent’s June Banks.

Although she went down 3-0 against a player completing a hat-trick of world titles, Hughes was still delighted with her runners-up trophy.

She said: “To be perfectly honest I went into the tournament not really expecting to do anything.

“That’s because I needed to have a hand operation at the end of last year and haven’t actually played since November.”

Hughes also reached the semi-finals of the Plate event, having gained a walkover win against Chitra Magimairaj in the last eight.

Hughes had her chances in the last four but eventually lost 3-0 to local favourite Kim O’Brien.

O’Brien went on to be defeated 3-0 in the Plate final by Tina Owen-Sevilton.

In the main event, Hughes failed to make it into the last 16 and was eliminated in the group stages.

World number one and top seed Reanne Evans went on to claim her seventh straight world crown after crushing Emma Booney 5-1 in the final.

In the Billiards, Hughes also reached the final of the Plate event, losing 70-46 to Gaye Jones.