YORK teenager Steve Gregson took his snooker career up a gear when he played in the first tournament of the Pontin's International Open Series this week.

This is the stepping-stone to qualifying for top-flight snooker, with the best eight at the end of the season winning places on the Main Tour.

There are eight International Open events at Prestatyn, North Wales, with a player's best six results counting towards the final order of merit.

The 17-year-old Gregson, from Stockton-on-the-Forest, last week played a key role in helping England win the Under-19s championship in the European Snooker and Billiards Association Home Internationals at Prestatyn.

His top break of 102 was the second highest made in the U19s event.

This week he was back in North Wales for the first of the International Open tournaments and began impressively with an opening round 4-2 win over 23-yearold Irishman Brendan O'Donoghue, who was Irish Senior champion three years ago.

Gregson then faced a really difficult match against former world number five Gary Wilkinson, from Kirkby-inAshfield, the 1992 World Matchplay champion who 15 years ago was taking on the best in the world but is now down in the lower ranks.

This proved to be too tough a task for the York youngster, who lost 4-0, with Wilkinson making a 67 break in one frame.

Gregson will be back in Prestatyn again next month to play in the second tournament of the seasonlong series.

Pickering pro Paul Davison played in the PIOS series last season and finished in the top eight to win his place back on snooker's Main Tour this season.