Kyron Wilson became World Champion for the first time with an 18-14 win over Welsh qualifier Jak Jones. World number 12, after this win is now third in the world behind new world number one Mark Allen and former World Champion Judd Trump, the world number two.

After confidently dispatching David Gilbert in the semi-final, Wilson had been a World Snooker Championship final, in 2020 losing to Ronnie O’Sullivan in what turned out to be a one-sided affair 18-8.

Four-years on from that experience, the Kettering born player was looking to go one better, especially with the former world number one and seven-time champion O’Sullivan exiting at the quarter-final stage.

In what would be a Crucible record, eleven of the top sixteen were knocked out in the earlier rounds. The shocks and upsets didn’t stop as Judd Trump was dumped out of the tournament 13-9 as was Stuart Bingham 17-12, both falling to Welsh qualifier Jak Jones.

The 30-year old who has a name matching a premium clothing label, was putting in very premium performances in Sheffield. Critics were quick to label the qualifier as defensive and having a slow shot-time, but both Trump and Bingham weren’t much quicker in their shot times when they faced up against Jak Jones.

Going into the final, Jones was clearly the underdog and arguably had nothing to lose, but it would be the Welshman who would arguably be a bit overwhelmed early doors.

Wilson, 32 took the first session 7-1, after initially leading 7-0. To Jones’ credit instead of rolling over, he rallied and would go on to trail 13-10. The new world number three would rally and go 15-10 in front.

That quickly turned in 17-11 and Kyron Wilson just needed one for victory. With nothing to lose and the feeling of inevitability, Jak Jones went on a three-frame winning burst, where one frame saw a failed 147 attempt.

Despite that mini set-back, Jones would go on to win the frame. After doing enough in the first-sesssion Kryon Wilson struggled in parts in this match thereafter.

In fact if Jak Jones had his break-building cue with him, he might have been able to have made this more of a competitive spectacle. Ironically when the 30-year-old tried to take the game to his more experienced opponent, is what proved to be his down fall.

Qualifier Jak Jones who played two more games than Kyron Wilson to get this far, arguably ran out of steam due to inexperience at competing at this level. At this level however, the 30-year-old has shown he can cut it with the best of them.

Last year he got to the quarters and this year he would better that. Jak Jones who no doubt won admirers with his solid and steely match play snooker moves up to 14th in the World Snooker Championship rankings, which makes him able to qualify for The Masters directly.

As for the new world champion he’s third after this win, his biggest of his career. Although given his opponent a seven-frame head start, this was a very hard-fought win for the Englishman.

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