Jimmy White 'still scoring 147s' at 62 and explains Barry Hearn promise after win

Jimmy White insisted he is "still making 147s" after causing an upset in his showdown with Hossein Vafaei at the Northern Ireland Open on Monday. The 62-year-old booked his place in the last 32 with a 4-2 victory following an action-packed clash in Belfast.

White, who is at the tournament on merit, got the better of Vafaei despite failing to make a single half-century break throughout the match.

He then declared that he had been told by former World Snooker Tour chairman Barry Hearn that there will always be wildcards available to him as long as he keeps turning up to events.

"I've been playing some really good stuff but when you've not got any confidence... Listen it's a great win for me," White explained after his victory.

"I enjoy practising, enjoy doing exhibitions, enjoy entertaining. I still make 147s and now and again I have a little buzz where I can beat anybody. It's not as consistent as it was, but I think that will come with a few wins. That was a decent win for me today.

And discussing his tour card, the six-time World Snooker Championship finalist added: "I got mine on merit the last couple of years. Barry Hearn did say to me, what I've done for the game, as long as I keep playing in all of the events then I'll keep getting the wildcard. But it's nice to get it on merit."

In the early stages of the match, Vafaei attempted to pot the brown into the green pocket but saw the ball jump out of the jaws, roll along the rail and instead.

Both players gave away fouls when playing with the rest, with White at one stage handing his opponent 36 points trying to get out of a snooker before incredibly going on to win the frame.

And in the final frame, referee Kevin Dabrowski called a foul after Vafaei had potted a red as he insisted the Iranian had failed to place the white ball in the D correctly after it had gone in-off following a shot from his opponent.

"It was very tough, I'm desperate to try and get a win, get going," White explained after the match as he gave his reaction to his win. "A couple of times I'm on 40, go into the pack, nowhere.

"My safety was alright, but there was a lot of mistakes, a lot of misses. It was a bizarre game."

And in a separate interview, the veteran added: "It (the match) was bizarre, it was really weird."