KYREN WILSON shrugged off a headache that felt like “my head was going to explode” to win his UK Championship opener.
Yet his vanquished opponent Stephen Maguire – who was thrashed 6-0 in a bizarre last-32 clash – described his display as “garbage”.
Reigning world champion Wilson, 32, woke up feeling awful, the day after he had worked for the BBC in the commentary box.
It was a bizarre game at York’s Barbican in which the highest break was only 86 and under-par Maguire compiled a high of 32.
The Warrior – who now plays Chris Wakelin in the last-16 – said: “It was a strange match.
“Early doors both of us were going into the pack, not really landing on a ball and having to play safe.
“For me the table was so difficult to judge. I don’t know if that was what was wrong with Stephen.
“I felt everything was drifting to the right. If you were playing it slow, it was drifting to the right.
“I had the worst headache. I had it in the comms box with JV [John Virgo]. My brother got me some painkillers.
“I woke up with it again. Going out for the first frame, there’s so much intensity, your heart is racing, the lights are quite different and it was so warm.
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“I just felt like my head was going to explode. So I had to get out of there and just take some more painkillers, but touch wood, it’s not too bad now.”
Maguire – who came through two rounds of qualifying in Leicester – was downbeat after “one of the worst performances ever” and could not work out what had transpired.
The Scotsman, 43, said: “It was rubbish, there’s nothing more that I can say. Just garbage.
“It was a hard one to take. What can you do? You just go home and see what the next day brings.
“You can’t explain that. It was one of the worst performances ever. I’m struggling to believe how bad that was.”
