It is home, after all, to Ding Dong Daddy, hero of a 1930s music-hall number still popular as the theme-song of an annual Dumas summer festival (though Dumas, Texas also claims him).
Ding Junhui, who won the crown in 2005, will play either Ryan Day or fellow Chinese player Liu Song in the second round, when he enters the competition along with the rest of the top 16.