Greene crashes out on a day of coronavirus test disarray

GERARD GREENE slumped to his fourth first round defeat of the season on a day of coronavirus chaos at the Scottish Open in Milton Keynes.

The Northern Ireland player went down 4-1 against reigning Shoot Out champion Michael Holt but, overall, yesterday was unfortunately dominated by Covid-19 confusion, as dozens of players were unable to take to the baize owing to delays in receiving test results.

Matches scheduled to take place at 1pm could not start until as late as 6.30pm and many of the evening matches had still not begun before 9.30pm.

Greene, the world No.73, got the all clear for his match in the morning but a brilliant performance from Holt dashed his hopes of progression at the Marshall Arena.

The world No.27 struck breaks of 126, 113, 55 and 52 as the evergreen 47-year-old had no answer and remained firmly rooted to his chair, utterly frustrated as another match slipped away from his grasp.

That was one of just 11 matches to take place before the test results delays came into effect and dozens of players were forced to wait until receiving the green light to take to the baize.

Two of those players were Antrim’s Jordan Brown and Mark Allen, who were unfortunately unable to descend on the table until hours after their scheduled start time.

World No.93 Brown eventually overcame veteran Barry Pinches 4-3 in a seven-frame marathon, while Champion of Champions Allen was 2-0 up against the evergreen Jimmy White.

An official World Snooker Tour statement responded to the situation and said: “The safety of players and officials at events is of the highest priority for WST. We have implemented a strict Covid-19 testing regime which goes above and beyond government requirements.

“As a result, no player is allowed to compete until a negative test has been provided.

“Testing for all players involved in Monday’s matches took place at least the day before.

“However, the late arrival of results caused a delay in the day’s matches from the 1pm session onwards.

“Matches have commenced at the earliest possible times after negative results were received.”