Chris Wakelin makes career breakthrough with Snooker Shoot Out final win over Julien Leclercq

Experience trumped youth, as Chris Wakelin beat Julien Leclercq in the final of the Snooker Shoot Out to secure his first ranking title.

Both players showed their quality, and strength of nerves, to advance to the final at the Morningside Arena in Leicester – and it was Wakelin who produced brilliance to lift the first title of his career at the age of 30.

At 19, Leclercq was looking to become only the seventh teenager – after Yan Bingtao, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Paul Hunter, Stephen Hendry, John Higgins and Ding Junhui – to win a ranking title, but he fell at the final hurdle.

Wakelin drew first blood in the final when forcing an error from a fine safety. After getting in, he went for broke with an extremely difficult black with half of the pocket obscured.

Fortune favoured the brave, as it found the bottom right and it helped him go on and produce a stunning century.

For good measure, Wakelin added the £5,000 prize for the high break to his £50,000 winner’s cheque thanks to a brilliant 119.

While Leclercq fell at the final hurdle, Wakelin almost came a cropper at the first – as he had to win a blue-ball shootout against Farakh Ajaib in the opening round.

“It was the first time all week, the first time in the Shoot Out, I made a break over 50 so I am going to celebrate that,” Wakelin said on Eurosport. “128 players turned up this week to give it their best shot and throw their name in the hat, and I am lucky to be the man who comes out on top.”

Paying tribute to his beaten opponent, Wakelin said: “He is an absolute credit to us as a sport. He has come here and shown that not only he can battle, but he can score as well.

“He has got a lot of future in the game.”

Jimmy White had words of praise for Wakelin in the Eurosport studio.

“With that last frame, all those thousands of hours of practice, he got into a situation where if he was practicing in a club it would have been no problem,” White said. “He showed it under pressure, every ball in the centre of the pocket, a fantastic break.

“Congratulations to him.

“A complete career-changer for him, I think we will see a lot more of him now.”

Leclercq advanced to the final with a brilliant win over Dominic Dale, beating the Spaceman in thrilling fashion, and the Belgian looks to have a superb future in the game.

Dechawat Poomjaeng won himself a legion of fans with his performances, on and off the table, this week.

Jack Lisowski’s bid for a breakthrough ranking title goes on, as he was beaten by Michael Holt in the last 16.

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