27 year old Jason Banks, from the Garioch club in the North of Scotland, beaten in a thrilling title decider last year by England's Jamie Walker, earlier today negotiated his passage into the 2nd Round of the Imagine Cruising World Indoor Singles Championship, knocking out Australian qualifier Blake Nairn form the Cambridge club in Perth 10-7, 8-4.
Nairn, a regular qualifier for Australia, made his first appearance in WBT event at Blackpool in the International Open in 2018 and followed that up with his debut appearance at these Championship 4 years ago and recently qualified to play in the WBT Scottish International Open in December, got off to a great start, continually putting Banks under pressure with his aggressive strikes - tempered by his delicate draw shots and scored a treble on the opening end.
Inverurie based Banks, a Graduate Mechanical Engineer at Scottish Water, gradually settled into his trademark drawing game and despite dropping that opening end treble, rolled in ten shots over six of the remaining eight ends to take the set 10-7.
In the second set Nairn once again made the early running but a full house on the third end put Banks in the driving seat and he stayed ahead for the remainder of the match to book a 2nd round spot.
The WBT rankings dictate the draws in all of their events and Banks now waits for the winner of Monday's 1st round match between defending champion Jamie Walker and Scotland's Iain McLean - which will be shown Live on BBC Television at 3pm - and should Walker win that head to head then his 2nd round clash will be a replay of last year's exciting final.
RESULT
Saturday 13th January - DAY 9/Match 1
Jason Banks (Scot/16) bt Blake Nairn (Aus/Q) 10-7, 8-4.
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