World number one Mark Selby was pleased to be back at the increasingly-popular snooker venue of the Metrodome for the last event of 2017 this week.

Selby, who has won the World Championship in three of the last four years, has joined the likes of Judd Trump, Ding Junhui and Jimmy White in Barnsley. They have been at the Metrodome since Tuesday for the free German Masters qualifiers which are due to finish today.

The China Open qualifiers are also in the town from January 27-30, building on the success of Barnsley's first major snooker event, the English Open, which took place in October. Ronnie O'Sullivan – who won the English Open in Barnsley in October – was due to return on Wednesday, but pulled out of this week's event due to medical reasons.

Selby, who beat Sam Baird 5-0 in the first round, told the Chronicle: "It's nice to be back in Barnsley. The English Open was a really good set-up and maybe this can be the long-term home of that competition. It was interesting to see how it was going to work with the tiered seating but it worked well. The crowds were really good as well.

"It was good to have a big competition in this venue. And it was nice to be back for the qualifiers this week. I thought it was a bit too warm in there this week. But overall it's a nice venue."

Tickets for this week's event at the Metrodome are free to the public. Selby said: "The tickets should always be free for the qualifiers. You can see some of the best players in the world for free and hopefully fall in love with snooker."

Selby's other great sporting love is his hometown football club Leicester City, who loaned Matty James to Barnsley last season and youngster Harvey Barnes this season. He said: "I have followed both of them. Harvey hasn't played for our first team yet but, from what I have seen of him, he has the potential to be a very good player. I am glad to hear he is doing well for Barnsley."I have seen a lot of Matty James. He has had really bad injuries but hopefully he can get back to playing for us regularly."

Selby won the thrilling first frame 69-62 against world number 59 Baird by potting the black when the scores were level then came from behind to win 47-38 in very close another frame.He then made a break of 94 to win the third frame and then took a narrow fourth before he completed the whitewash with a break of 80.

"It was good to to get the win. The first few frames were a bit scrappy but I got the job done. It's the last event of a long year. I wanted to play well but the main thing is getting through."