Wright Takes Off His Glasses in Last Ditch Comeback
Peter Wright took his glasses off to keep his sight set on a first-ever Betfred World Matchplay title.
The World Champion looked to be heading out of the major when he trailed 8-5 to Portuguese star Jose De Sousa in Milton Keynes.
But Snakebite dumped the specs and then remarkably reeled off five successive legs to save his matchplay skin in style.
Wright, 50, said: “It’s still blurry now, it’s just a fuzz. It was like just glaring off the glasses. I was trying to ignore, ignore it. But I got totally annoyed with myself.
“I thought that’s it, if I lose the match. I’ll take them off and give it a try and get back to just trying to see.
“Even up there now it’s still blurry. But the blurry bits went in!
“I wanted to play a lot better than that. I had big high hopes and setting myself targets of beating all the highest averages that have ever been in the Matchplay. But in the end I’m just glad to get Jose out the way. He’s a quality player and will be in the Premier League one day.”
Showman Wright also admitted he found it difficult to get fired-up without a crowd to get him going during the tight encounter.
He added: “It was so difficult. I was watching it on TV last night, watching the players how they dealt with the false crowd sound.
“I was practising in the back room tonight and thought it’s OK. But when you get up there it’s a different story, oh my god.
“I tried to get into it. I kept looking up at the screen to see the fans on video and that helped inspire me.”
By Phil Lanning
T: @lannomedia
F: Phil Lanning
IG: @lannomedia