World Snooker respond to ‘embarrassing’ 100-minute frame between Yize and Allen

The World Snooker Tour has issued a response after facing criticism from six-time world champion Steve Davis.

On Friday, Davis was among a number of viewers who criticised Mark Allen and Wu Yize’s World Championship semi-final after the pair played out a frame lasting a Crucible-record 100 minutes and 21 seconds, leaving spectators frustrated.

At one stage, eight red balls were gathered around the black near a corner pocket, leading many to call for referee Marcel Eckardt to intervene.

However, the German official allowed play to continue despite mounting impatience among the Sheffield crowd.

Eckardt did warn the players that a re-rack would be called if the frame failed to move on from the stalemate.

Spectators were then forced to watch as not a single ball was potted for 55 minutes. The 14th frame eventually ended when Allen potted the black.

The drawn-out encounter also had a knock-on effect on the other semi-final between John Higgins, who had earlier knocked out Ronnie O’Sullivan, and Shaun Murphy.

Six-time world champion Davis led the backlash, describing the match as “an embarrassment to snooker”.

Speaking on the BBC, he said: “In a nutshell, that frame is an embarrassment to snooker, and the referees’ and players association need to find a way to ensure it never happens again.”

Meanwhile, seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry shared a similar view, questioning the referee’s handling of the situation.

“The referee’s got to get involved here, in my opinion,” he said.

“This is the dark side of snooker. It’s been a horrendous frame, but it’s helped Wu Yize so much.

“He didn’t look like winning another frame, but the ludicrous nature of this has just helped to lighten the load on him and free him up, making him forget what was happening to him in this session.”

BBC commentator John Parrott also waded in, saying: “I’ve never seen a frame like it in all my years. I’ve never seen it like this — never this bad.

“These reds are just glued to each other now… Come on, ref, you’ve got to do something here. You’ve got to step in. This is just silly.”

As reported by the Mirror, despite the backlash seemingly coming from all quarters, World Snooker defended referee Eckardt, saying they felt ‘the rule was applied correctly’.

The match continues at 7 pm on Saturday.