BITTER TASTE OF DEFEAT FOR RONNIE
RONNIE O’SULLIVAN tasted defeat at the English Open last night – but not before he was embroiled in a bizarre row over the cleanliness of the K2 Leisure Centre in Crawley.
O’Sullivan, who has maintained his criticism of a venue which he described as a “hell-hole” last year, posted a tweet yesterday which tried to illustrate hygiene issues.
Beneath a pic appearing to show food waste under a table, O’Sullivan wrote: “The floor at K2 Crawley Restaurant not looking too clean”, adding the hashtags #hygiene and #healthandsafety.
But the tweet was soon dismissed by both World Snooker and the leisure centre operators, Everyone Active, who insisted the photo in question had been taken six months ago.
On the table, O’Sullivan shut out his frustrations earlier in the day with a comfortable 4-1 win over Hossein Vafaei of Iran but his last-16 clash with China’s Mei Xiwen ended in a 4-3 defeat.
O’Sullivan, who also made headlines for claiming the K2 venue smelled of urine last year, stepped up his criticism earlier this week by insisting the centre needed a “complete refurbishment”.
Ironically, that is precisely what Everyone Active insist has happened to the restaurant area since the photograph posted by O’Sullivan was allegedly taken – and issued updated pictures to prove it.
Everyone Active’s Stuart Mills said: “We can confirm the picture Ronnie is referring to was taken over six months ago, and we have tweeted him back to reassure him that this is the case.”