Controversy descended on the World Snooker Championships on Friday evening as Wu Yize and Mark Allen played out a record-breaking 100-minute frame dubbed ‘embarassing’ by pundits.
Allen overturned a 6-2 deficit to take a narrow lead into the 14th frame, before the match ground to a bizarre stalemate.
The black ball was caught in the table’s bottom-right pocket, with the eight reds surrounding it.
And the reds only grew more congested as neither Wu nor Allen was able to shake up the lay of the land.
Fans in the crowd made their frustration known before referee Marcel Eckardt offered the retort: “Thank you for the advice but we can do it without you.”
Eckardt, who came in for considerable criticism for his handling of the affair, eventually gave the cueists three shots each to settle the match before re-racking, a move which left Allen, the match’s leader, incensed.
He ultimately potted the black ball - the first ball sunk for some 55 minutes - making the reds available. The curtain eventually fell on the agonising frame after exactly 100 minutes.
Wu was the long-awaited victor, levelling the match at 7-7. And the stalemate would continue into the weekend, with the 14th frame lasting long enough to prevent the subsequent two from running their course.
Six-time world champion Steve Davis told the BBC: “In a nutshell that frame is an embarrassment to snooker, and the referees' and the players' association need to try to work out a way so that never happens again.”
The Crucible’s 2024 champion Kyren Wilson added: “I think the referee should've called that a lot earlier. That game was going nowhere, quite painful, but the fight and determination from Mark Allen is still incredible.”
