KEIGHLEY footballer-turned-snooker player Rebecca Granger reached the semi-finals of the Ladies World Championship in only her second ranking tournament.

The 27-year-old from Oakworth, who only turned her hand to world-ranking events this winter because she is waiting for an operation on a dislocated shoulder, has reaped swift reward since her green-baize debut in March.

Granger, who plays for Silsden Ladies in the West Riding County Women's Football League, reached the quarter-finals of the Eden Classic at North East Derbyshire Snooker Centre in Chesterfield. However, the Keighley Liberal Club member easily surpassed that by getting to the semi-finals of the Ladies' World Championship at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds last month.

Granger explained: "Football, which I started playing when I was 11, is my passion but I also enjoy snooker, and used to play at Keighley Liberal Club with my dad Michael – once I was big enough to play on a full-sized table.

"I had started off by playing pool but then my dad and myself played snooker and, as we used to beat all the other pairings down at the club, they asked us to play together in the Cross Hills & District Snooker League."

Oakworth Road-based Granger is the only female in the league, but has a healthy record there too, also reaching the scratch semi-finals.

She added: "My dad Michael passed away last October and was too ill to play in the league's Two-Man Tournament, so I entered with my partner Ash Kenna, and we won it."

It was only much later this winter, however, that Rebecca thought of entering ladies' world-ranking tournaments.

She said: "I read about the Eden Classic on the World Ladies' Billiards & Snooker website, and thought I had missed the deadline to enter, but I hadn't as it was the following weekend.

"My aim was to get through my group, and I did as I finished second after winning three of my four matches, but then I played world No 3 Jaique Ip (from Hong Kong) and lost 3-1."

Granger, who is a personal trainer, then entered the World Championships and sailed through her group by winning four out of four.

She said: "The first day was a long one as I had to arrive at 9.30am but didn't play until 3.30pm, but I am not usually one for getting too nervous."

Granger then got her revenge on Ip, beating her 3-1 in the last 16, and defeated Australia's Kathy Howden 4-1 in her quarter-final to earn a match against holder Ng On Yee, who is also from Hong Kong.

The Keighley woman, who practises with local player Andy Fowler, said: "My style of play is quite aggressive but I am learning about safety.

"I was not nervous in my last-16 match or my quarter-final, as I had been told that Kathy wasn't as good a player as Ip, who I had just beaten, but I was really nervous in my semi-final."

Yee won 4-0, only to lose her title in the final against Reanne Evans, but Rebecca had had a good week, saying: "I only expected to win £80 but ended up with £300."

She is hoping to have her shoulder operation this summer but the world No 16 wants to give more of her time to snooker in future, and play enough world-ranking tournaments next season to get into the top eight, thus sparing her the bother of qualifying for the World Championships.