IT'S D-Day for one of snooker's Young Players of Distinction when the 2000 Liverpool Victoria UK Championship gets underway at the BIC on Saturday.

By his own admission, 20-year-old Welshman Ryan Day has made a miserable start to the season.

But the signs are he is now ready to fulfil his potential.

Day is part of a pioneering scheme to give young players of potential a helping hand on the road to stardom.

The Young Players of Distinction programme is designed to provide training and expertise in the creation of the complete snooker professional.

Six players have been se-lected to participate in a 12-month programme, developing them both professionally and personally.

And four of them - Day, Alan Burnett, Ali Carter and newly-crowned IBSF world champion Stephen Maguire - will be competing at Bournemouth.

The six are competing in their own mini snooker lea-gue throughout the season.

But success in world ranking tournaments remains their major target and after winning only one match in his first four events, Day is keen to make amends.

He takes on fellow Welsh-man Wayne Jones in the first round of the UK Champion-ship at 10am on Saturday with confidence boosted by a good run of results in the Benson and Hedges Snooker Championship at Malvern.

Five wins took him through to the last eight before he lost 5-2 to Eng-land's Shaun Murphy and he declared: "I'm going into the UK with a lot more confidence than I had at the qualifiers in Newport last summer.

"After my nightmare start to the season, I have increas-ed the number of hours I spend on the practice table from five to seven a day.

"I have also been travelling down to Terry Griffiths' club in Llanelli once or twice a week to practice with Matt-hew Stevens.

"Matthew is one of the best players in the world - he finished runner-up to Mark Williams in last year's UK - and practising with him can only improve my game.

"The UK is a really big tournament for me - I need to pick up some ranking points - and I'm hoping all my hard work will pay off."

Day, the world number 124, already has a major claim to fame.

He became the first player to beat Steve Davis from 4-0 down when he recorded a remarkable 5-4 victory over the six-times world champion in the Regal Welsh earlier this year.

Day comes from a sporting family. Younger brother Rhys, 18, is currently on Manchester City's books.

City are keen for him to gain first-team experience elsewhere but the 6ft 1in centre-half recently rejected a loan move to the Nation-wide League's bottom club Halifax.

"Both Rhys and I have reached an important stage in our respective careers. Now we're looking to move in the right direction," added Day.