Joe Shannon came agonisingly close to victory on his World Snooker Tour debut as the 14-year-old lost to Robert Milkins in the first round of the Snooker Shoot Out in Leicester.
The 14-year-old from Longford built a 42-1 lead but missed a black off the spot to give Milkins an opening.
The veteran Englishman reduced the lead by 20 points and was then handed another chance in the final two minutes of the one-frame match.
Milkins moved into a 45-42 lead and let the clock run down to ensure a narrow victory.
Shannon produced some excellent shots in the game and was unfortunate to be defeated.
A second Irish amateur also featured today as Joel Connolly from Belfast was beaten by Cork's Aaron Hill 39-12 in an all-Irish clash.
Jordan Brown lost out to Si Jiahui, with the Chinese player's break of 78 doing the damage in a 97-0 win, while Ken Doherty withdrew from the tournament this morning due to illness.
Defending champion Mark Allen made it through with Scotland's Ross Muir causing few problems in the opening clash of the tournament, while 2022 winner Hossein Vafaei fought back to beat former finalist Julien Leclercq 46-34.
Jimmy White suffered costly fouls to crash out against former champion Thepchaiya Un-Nooh.
The 62-year-old White inadvertently knocked the blue into the middle pocket as he tried to play a safety shot back to baulk.
White escaped harm that time and was 30-19 up when he touched the cue ball sizing up a straightforward red.
Un-Nooh, the Thai who won the 2019 event for his only ranking title, took full advantage to triumph 75-30.
Sophie Nix and Reanne Evans, two of the five women competing in the event, made first-round exits with respective defeats to Anthony McGill and Gary Wilson.
McGill, the 2017 champion, gave few scoring openings to fellow Scot Nix in his 40-7 victory, while world number 11 Wilson produced a 56 break in his 79-8 success over Evans.
Home favourite Louis Heathcote progressed at the expense of American Ahmed Elsayed and was joined in the last 64 by fellow Englishmen Paul Deaville and David Gilbert.
Ryan Day edged out Matthew Selt 46-33, while there were also wins for the Chinese quartet of Fan Zhengyi, Gong Chenzhi, Lyu Haotian and Wu Yize, Austria’s Florian Nuessle and Antoni Kowalski, from Poland.
China were also strongly represented in the evening session with wins for Huang Jiahao, Long Zehuang, Ma Hailong, Xiao Guodong and Zhou Yuelong.
Ashley Carty won an all-England battle against Kayden Brierley and fellow Englishmen Andrew Higginson, David Lilley, Haydon Pinhey, Joe O'Connor and Zak Surety will join him in round two.
Welsh pair Duane Jones and Matthew Stevens progressed with narrow victories over Chris Totten and Yuan Sijun.
Thailand’s Noppon Saengkham booked his second-round spot by edging out Liu Hongyu.
