The 42-year-old Islander, who hails from the north-east of England, lifted the title after clawing his way back from a 3-1 frames deficit to level at three-all and then win the one-ball black-ball shoot-out against Ireland’s Patrick Wallace, a World Championship quarter-finalist in 2003.
Canavan, a car restorer at CVS in Rouge Bouillon, looked a beaten man after the opening four frames of the final, but he responded brilliantly to pocket £10,000 in prize money and earn himself a place in next month’s World Championship qualifiers, at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
‘It’s unbelievable,’ said Canavan late yesterday, adding: ‘I know I said pre-tournament that I’m in it to win, I really did not expect to go this far.
‘On Saturday night I was having a meal with five former World professional stars, I could not believe it.
‘On Sunday morning I woke up, after not much sleep, to find that I had 472 friend requests on Facebook – I don’t know that many people.
‘It’s still not really sunk in yet, although I’ve had a fantastic week.’
Canavan, who won his opening match last Wednesday against 1985 World champion Dennis Taylor, won his quarter-final 3-1 against Johnny Farrell.
Saturday afternoon the First Tower Institute cueist won another black-ball decider against China’s Cao Kaisheng.
Canavan said: ‘Snooker is massive in China and Cao came through to win a qualifier that had 85 players in it.
‘He played a real solid game against me, he hit some amazing balls and I was very pleased to beat him in the end.
‘I didn’t play well in the final over the first four frames, I couldn’t feel my arms or my lead and I was missing shots galore.
‘At the interval I went off and I told myself to make the game respectable otherwise I’d be going home with nothing.
‘Obviously 3-1 down I could not afford any more mistakes and I decided that if I could get my hand on the table and their was a pot on then I was going to go for and that’s what I did and, thankfully, I went on to win.’
Following the final, which was streamed live on the Snooker Legends Facebook page, Canavan said: ‘It’s a dream [winning], 35 years I’ve been waiting for this, this is what its all about.
‘I’m just a club player from Jersey who followed a dream.’
Canavan will now need to win three matches at the World qualifier between 11 and 18 April, to get into the last 32 of the tournament.
