LEE Richardson has been handed a route back into the big-time just one week after he blasted snooker's authorities for slamming the door in his face.

The Thame-based player has been given a shock call-up to the game's Challenge Tour and a good performance in that will earn him a position back on the Main Tour among the game's elite players like Stephen Hendry.

His call-up comes less than a week after he tore into the World Snooker Association, accusing them of prematurely ending his career by limiting the opportunities for low-ranked players to improve their ratings.

The 31-year-old was considering hustling a living out of the game instead by challenging other professional players and taking them on for a wager.

But now he doesn't have to do that and Richardson, who once boasted a top 80 ranking, has the opportunity to climb the snooker ladder again.

The Challenge Tour offers him four tournaments in which he can build up his ranking and the top Challenge players will then be promoted onto the elite Main Tour.

Richardson, currently rated in the 300s said: "I'm the happiest man in the world. The call came totally out of the blue. I still can't believe it. I don't know how it came. Just a week ago I was moaning about the WSA and now this has happened.

"Maybe it had something to do with the article in the Bucks Free Press. I wasn't asking questions. I just sent my £400 off and grabbed the place. I'm over the moon."

Richardson, known as The Shirt because of his colourful matchday attire, added: "This is a big chance for me and one I intend to take."

He faces James Weston in the Benson and Hedges pre-qualifying tournament at Mansfield on October 21 and then has another couple of weeks to prepare for the first of his four Challenge tournaments, back in Mansfield in November.

He said: "I'm practising all the hours God sends now. I've been given the chance again and I'm going to do everything I can to make it work."

Snooker coach John McArdle is trying to resurrect the Bucks Free Press Snooker Championship.

The tournament was very successful in the seventies and eighties and McCardle, a coach at Snooker Leisure, is canvassing support at the moment in a bid to bring it back.

He said: "It was very popular in the past and I'm sure it can be again. There used to be some high-class snooker and it would be fantastic to have it back."