BRADFORD, who have been Yorkshire Inter-District League champions for the past three seasons, will be testing themselves on the national stage this weekend.

They are taking part in the National Snooker League Invitational Championship at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds.

Also in their eight-team group for the five-man event are Bristol, Cleveland, Newbury, Norwich, Ormskirk, Reading and Stourbridge.

The initial format is two divisions of eight, with each team playing each other on Saturday from 11am for the right to qualify for the quarter-finals, where the top four from each division will fight it out in a knockout basis on Sunday (10am start).

Bradford No 1's Wayne Cooper, Kevin Firth and Mark Slater, who have won that silverware treble, will be bolstered by brothers Gareth and Anthony Green.

Cooper is a four-time Yorkshire champion and nine-time Bradford champion. He holds both titles, having beaten Slater in last season's Bradford final.

Firth is a former England international, while Gareth Green is a former Yorkshire and four-time Bradford champion, partnering Anthony to lift the Bradford Pairs crown in 2014-15.

The squad is completed by reserve Lewis Walsh, who will act as assistant manager to Richard Bakes.

The players have warmed up nicely for the event, with Cooper, Firth and Gareth Green in particular in good form.

The latter made the final of the recent pro-am in Leeds and also won his Bradford Snooker Handicap semi-final off minus 47, beating Matt Yeadon 3-1 and making breaks of 88 and 83 in the process.

He will play Yorkshire Handicap champion Josh Walker in the final on Saturday, December 5, Walker having beaten Robert Lovett 3-2 in the other semi-final.

Cooper and Firth won their frames against James Dabell and Tom Priest as Bradford No 1 climbed above opponents Sheffield No 1 to once again head Division One of the Yorkshire Inter-District League, with Walsh taking a frame off former Yorkshire champion Martin Finnigan to give the side a 5-1 success at Undercliffe Cricket Club.

In Division Two, Bradford No 2 sit proudly at the top after also recording a 5-1 victory against Castleford No 3, Peter Hamilton losing the first frame of the night on the black, but then taking the next, Boover Singh and Hanif Rafiq securing an excellent win for the second string.