A RECORD number of entries – including several from Gwent – will contest disability snooker’s inaugural Welsh Open on a big weekend for the sport in Cwmbran.

All 40 of the World Disability Billiards and Snooker (WDBS) event’s places were filled more than seven days before the original entry deadline.

The tournament, taking place at Redz Snooker Club, is the first the WDBS have staged outside England since the organisation began staging competitions in November 2015.

And in another first, the Welsh Open, supported by J&S Trading, is open to all eight WDBS disability classification groups.

Proceedings kick-off tomorrow with an open day, before the tournament pro-per starts on Saturday and finishes on Sunday.

Matches are played with six reds and feature players with physical, learning and sensory disabilities, with an initial round-robin phase leading into the knockout stage of the event.

Those not finishing in the top two of their group and securing a last-16 berth will be able to play in a mixed classification doubles tournament on Sunday – another new WDBS initiative being trialled.

Among the 40 entrants are Newport’s Craig Welsh, Cwmbran’s Adam Leighton and Caerphilly’s Adam Townsend.

While Wales is also represented by Phillip Murphy from Pontypridd and Powys potter Gary Gallacher.

WPBSA sport development manager Chris Hornby said: “It is fantastic to see numbers growing as we put on more events.

“This will be a great learning experience for us to run our first event with completely mixed classification groups and we hope this can become a regular fixture in the calendar.

“Hopefully it will be an opportunity for players from all the groups to have fun, while there will also be a competitive edge.

“It is exciting to see the WDBS stage its first event outside of England and we hope that this is the first of many countries to be added to the WDBS calendar.”

All players, including those who have not entered the tournament, are encouraged to attend the open day tomorrow to take advantage of practice and coaching opportunities.

Snooker was one of the sports contested at the first Paralympic Games in 1960 and featured up until 1988.

The long-term goal of the WDBS is to get snooker back in the Paralympics and they see this weekend’s event as a step on that journey.