ANDREW Pagett booked a ticket to Cyprus for next year’s European Championships after victories over the two top-ranked amateurs in Wales.

The former pro, who reached the Crucible in 2011, moved up to joint third in the rankings following his success at the European qualifiers in Ammanford.

Pagett, 34, won the third of six events on the Welsh amateur circuit by beating Matthew Roberts, Kishan Hirani and Nathan Davenport in the quarters, semis and final respectively.

Hirani and Davenport are the current one and two in Wales – the top three at the end of the season qualify for tournaments such as the World Amateur Championships.

Pagett was runner-up to Iran’s Soheil Vahedi in this year’s world amateur final so the Welshman is keen to return in 2017 and go one better.

And if his current form is anything to go by then there is every chance he could get the opportunity to do just that.

After reaching the last 16 and quarter-finals of the first two ranking events, the dad-of-two was relatively untroubled at Snooker World in Ammanford.

He beat Roberts and Hirani 3-1 before cruising home 3-0 in the final against Davenport – he also made breaks of 137, 105, 96, 90, 76, 68 and 62 along the way.

“I really needed to pull my finger out going into the event,” he said. “This was the qualifier for the European Championships and only the winner and Welsh number one would go through.

“Playing in club conditions is always hard because of the quality of the table, cloth and balls compared to the pro circuit.

“Practice had gone really well and I thought if anything was going to beat me it was going to be the tables, but they were beautiful.”

Pagett switched back to the amateur game 18 months ago to spend more time with his young family.