Welsh Open Wildcards First Round Update

As you are no doubt all aware, the Welsh Open is currently playing out in Cardiff. As part of the Home Nations series, Welsh Snooker were able to nominate two players as wildcard entries.

Monday the 13th February saw Jackson Page make his debut on the professional circuit. His match against Jason Weston started well, Jackson taking first blood in a mammoth 45 minute opener, only for Jason to level in the next frame. The experience of the older man showed for the next two frames, a comfortable win in the third but a tight fourth frame showed that Jackson had settled again. Frames 5 and 6 allowed Jackson to go for glory, levelling the match. If Jackson's parents weren't already on the edge of their seats, the decider must have pushed them over the edge. You couldn't write it, 27 behind on the colours, black and pink near the cushions and each in different halves of the table. The pink was struck with power and topspin, taking the white back to baulk where the black lay to take the frame to a respot. Jackson won the toss and put his opponent in and a couple of shots later Jackson was left with a straight, but no doubt nervy shot on the black to take the match, much to the obvious delight of the crowd.

Tyler Rees's turn came today, facing fellow Welshman Jamie Jones. Tyler didn't really settle in the first two frames, but struck back in some style in the third, almost freezing his opponent out at 77 points to 4. Whilst we were all hoping for success for our second wildcard, the next two frames were close scoring but ultimately went to Jamie, with a 1-4 result not really reflecting how well Tyler played once he'd adjusted to the conditions.

Jackson's full match can be seen HERE, with his Eurosport interview at this LINK

The BBC filmed Jackson and Tyler a few days ago, which can be found HERE