OLD rivals Stephen Hendry and Steve Davis are on collision course in the Liverpool Victoria UK Championship at the BIC later this month.

Hendry and Davis, who between them have won the UK title 11 times in the last 20 years, will come face to face in the last 32 - providing Davis negotiates his opening match and makes it through to the televised stages.

It's a mouth-watering prospect for television chiefs and snooker fans alike.

And Hendry, too, is keeping his fingers crossed that six-times UK champion Davis gets through.

The 31-year-old Scot, who has gone more than a year since winning his last world ranking title, believes a match against his one-time arch rival could kick-start his season.

Hendry today said: "I hope Steve does get through because it's the type of match I need - something to grab my attention and get my adrenaline flowing early on in the tournament.

"I have to admit I'm jealous of Steve's ability to get his head down and battle when he's not playing well.

"He can win matches when his highest break is 30.

"He still has a superb safety game - far better than mine - and that enables him to win matches that I would lose.

"If I had those qualities I'm sure I would have won even more tournaments and not suffered so many silly defeats."

Hendry, who once said he would retire from professional snooker by the age of 30, has nothing but admiration for 43-year-old Davis and the appetite he still shows for the game.

But he says: "I'm sure Steve isn't quite so enthusiastic about having to play qualifying matches this season as he makes out. He's just better at portraying enthusiasm than I am.

"I have to say it's very unlikely that I will still be battling away on the table once I turn 40 but snooker is my job - it's the only thing I know - and I've got a few more years left in me yet."

Motor-racing fanatic Hendry added: "I watch-ed an interview with Michael Schumacher on television the other day.

"Murray Walker asked him why he was still competing and he replied 'it's all I've ever done, race cars'.

"I'm the same age as Schumacher and if he can still find the motivation to compete with £300 million in the bank then I'm sure I can too!

"I can't say I still love putting in the hours of practice and I will never get used to losing.

"The things you were willing to put up with on your way up the ladder, like killing time in bet-ween matches at tournaments, start to get on your nerves. That never really bothered me when I was younger.

"I was so hungry for success that all I wanted to do was play snooker.

"I've got a family now but you have to accept that if you want to be successful, you still have to put the work in."

While Davis is trying to regain his place in the world's top 16 after slipping to 17th in the rankings, Hendry is attempting to halt a slump that has led to him dropping out of the top four for the first time in 12 years.

His CueMasters manager, Ian Doyle, was recently quoted as saying his client was going through a mid-career crisis, adding: "History might show, unless Stephen refocuses himself, that Steve Davis is the greatest player the game has ever seen."

The statistics - seven world titles, 32 ranking tournament victories and more than 500 century breaks - would suggest otherwise and Hendry himself scoffs at the word crisis.

He said: "I haven't made a great start to the season but then the same could be said for a few other players too.

"I lost 5-2 to Alan McManus in the quarter-finals of the British Open and I don't think I played that badly in the Grand Prix.

"It was more a case of Brian Morgan playing exceptionally well and he underlined that by beating Peter Ebdon in the next round.

"I played my best snooker for a long time to beat Ken Doherty 6-1 in the semi-finals of the Regal Masters in Motherwell and then lost 9-6 to Ronnie O'Sullivan in the final. I would hardly say that constitutes a crisis."

Hendry is well aware that he is judged by the standards he has set himself. The same applies to Davis. So something will have to give if two of the game's all-time greats meet over the best-of-17 frames in Bournemouth on Saturday, Nov-ember 25 (2.30pm) and Sunday, November 26 (2.30pm).

Davis plays his opening match on Wednesday, November 22 (3pm) and Thursday, November 23 (noon).

Tickets for this and other matches are available from the BIC box office on ticket hotline 01202 456456.