After cashing in on a £147,000 bonus at the end of last season, Jackson Page is chasing a different dream away from snooker by opening up his own trading card and collectibles shop.
Page made history by becoming the first ever player to make two 147 breaks in a single match during the penultimate round of World Championship qualifying. That gave him the bumper bonus by virtue of making two maximums across snooker’s four majors.
The feat saw him garner huge interest, including coverage on the BBC 10 o’clock news. However, defeat to Joe O’Connor on Judgement Day meant he missed out on the Crucible.
Away from the baize, the Welsh 23-year-old has long been a collectible enthusiast, specialising in Pokemon trading cards. His success on the table allowed him to open a shop called AJ's Trading Cards in the town of Brynmawr last month.
Page explained: “Everyone on tour knows that I am really into collectible stuff like Pokemon Cards and other things. I just decided it would be great to open up a shop as a bit of a thing on the side. It is a bit of an interest for me and something I like to do when I’m not focussing on snooker. It has been a brilliant experience seeing it open up, I obviously can’t work in there as I’m a snooker player but I’ve got someone to work there and it is a good hobby to have.
"The name of the shop is because my nickname on tour is AJ. I won a couple of games at the Welsh Open and Colin Murray called me Action Jackson. The guys latched onto that and started calling me AJ. We’ve got all sorts of things in there like Lego sets and Plushies, as well as the trading cards. It has been fun setting it up. We’ve got a few cards in there worth over £2,000. The most valuable and rare Pokemon Card we have is called a Moonbreon.
“When I was a kid I used to collect cards and I got back into it a couple of years ago. Now I’m in a position where I'm able to open a shop so I’ll see how it goes. It will be exciting to see how it pans out. Mark Williams popped over the other day to see the shop, his boy is into it all as well. So it was nice to have him come along.”
Despite not qualifying for the Crucible, Page did attend the Theatre of Dreams in May to watch close friend Williams take on Zhao Xintong in the world final. It was Zhao who prevailed and he was sporting an image of the fire monkey Pokemon character Chimchar on his bowtie during the event. Page jokingly concedes that Zhao could be an ideal first customer.
“He’s just won a fortune, so he could be a good customer. Despite being there for the final, I had no idea he had that on his bowtie. We have a Chimchar Funko Pop (bobble head figure) in the shop actually. I could maybe sell that to him!”
Page enjoyed a strong campaign last season, making a maiden ranking final at the Championship League and appearing in two quarter-finals. He now hopes to take that next step and secure maiden silverware. Looking back on world qualifying, he was philosophical about missing out on the Crucible and admits his moment of history softened the blow.
“It was hard to be too disappointed coming off the back of what I’d just done and what I’d won. It would have been a great buzz to go to the Crucible, but Joe is a great player and he played well. I finished badly in the first session and it costed me. There’s swings and roundabouts, wins and losses. At the end of the day I need to come back next year and try to be in a position where I don’t have to qualify.
“After I did it everything was a bit hectic. It was an amazing thing to do that and all the publicity just comes with the territory. It didn’t bother me, as it happens I lost the next game. That was one of these things. It would have been the icing on the cake to qualify but it didn’t happen. I was over the moon with the two 147 breaks and there is always next year. I’ll have to speak to the Guinness Book of Records and see if I can get in there now. It is a surreal feeling knowing I’m the only person to have done it.
“It is going in the right direction. Even just qualifying for the UK and being at most of the venues. I just want to take that next step and get a few titles under my belt as soon as possible. If you keep knocking on the door it will open at some point. I just hope it opens as soon as possible.”