Wallace to take on the ‘Whirlwind’ in Hull

PATRICK Wallace received a belated Christmas present last week when he was called into the UK Seniors Championships as a replacement for Tony Drago to take on Jimmy White.

Drago has been identified as a close contact of someone who had contracted Covid-19 and his enforced period of quarantine means he was unable to travel to the prestigious event, which takes place this week.

As a result, Dungannon’s Wallace, as the world ranked number one senior player, received Drago’s place in the competition and his spot in the draw against number three seed, his ‘all-time hero’, Jimmy ‘The Whirlwind’ White, against whom he hasn’t exactly set the world on fire in their previous meetings.

“He’s my all-time snooker hero, so hopefully I’ll improve on the head-to-head record against him which is played five and lost five!,” explained Patrick, who because he hadn’t initially qualified for the event, didn’t dedicate much time to snooker over the festive period.

He added: “The closest I got was when I lost 3-2 on a re-spot in the semi-finals of the Senior Irish Masters three or four years ago and I lost 3-0 to him in the semis of the UK Seniors the last time it was played in 2019 when my good friend Michael Judge beat him in the final.

“It’s a short format of best of five which gives me a bit of a chance but I wish I had spent less time eating and drinking over Christmas and more time practicing! I was eating all things Christmassy and over-indulging unfortunately, but I plan to put in some practice before I go.”

Patrick’s season got off to a great start back in September when he beat reigning Northern Ireland champion, Robbie McGuigan in the final of the Coach Classic.

He then lost in the decider of the next NI ranking tournament, the North West Trophy to the same player after returning from Portugal where he won a bronze medal alongside Dermot Loughran at the European Amateur Championships.

After that, the 52-year-old former World Championship quarter-finalist, reached the last eight of the Antrim Open and the semi-finals of the Drumaness Masters where he was in ‘frustrating’ form.

“Drumaness was a frustrating tournament because I did have a lot of good breaks,” he observed.

“Every frame I won I had at least a 50 break but I couldn’t win a close frame. Against Robbie [McGuigan] I lost 5-2 and I lost a frame on the black, a frame on the pink and a frame on the blue, which are the kind of frames with my experience that I’d hope to be doing better in against someone who is a bit younger. But throughout the tournament I couldn’t win a close frame, so hopefully I’ve saved them all up for Hull!”

Patrick and Jimmy White will go head-to-head tonight (Tuesday).