SHANE Castle produced a sensational performance against defending champion Mark Selby in the first round of the UK Snooker Championship tonight.

The 15 year-old from Southampton threatened a major upset, leading the former world number one 3-1 before bowing out 6-4 at York’s Barbican Centre.

He said: “There was no pressure on me, it was all on him but I’m so disappointed I lost. I had chances but didn’t take them.

“I took it frame by frame, the crowd was good, I played well and all credit to Mark for getting through.”

The world number two from Leicester needed an outrageous fluke to help him win the first frame and the nerveless Castle then won the remaining three frames before the interval, a 75 break the highlight.

But Selby got back on track with a 109 and moved 4-3 ahead as Castle was twice frustrated by bad kicks.

The youngster levelled but Selby pulled through with breaks of 74 and 54.

"Never in doubt, was it?" he quipped as he came into his press conference.

He added: "In patches I played okay but in other bits I was a little bit average.

"At the interval Shane fully deserved to be 3-1 up, he was the better player and handled it really well.

"I'm just happy to get through."