Early exit penalty for Allen

MARK Allen faces a fine from World Snooker after c o n c e d i n g a ma t c h - winning frame with 11 reds still left on the table at the World Grand Prix.

The f ormer Masters champion was 3-1 down to Ali Carter and trailing 20 points to two in the fifth frame when he missed a straightforward yellow and screwed the white ball back into the middle pocket.

The Northern Irishman immediately conceded the frame, and with it the match, to gift Carter a place in the quarter-finals of the Coral Grand Prix against fellowEnglishman David Gilbert.

Allen, who is currently sixth in the world rankings, later took to Twitter to apologise for his performance.

The Northern Irishman tweeted: “Bad day at the office. Sorry to anyone who had to watch that. Best of luck to @ TheCaptain147 for the rest of tournament. Home to the family now #priorities.”

Carter said: “We both started missing a lot, then Mark missed the yellow and just saw red.

“We’ve all done it and fortunately for me it gives me the match, but I didn’t want to win like that.

“We all make mistakes. I read in the paper the other day that Sergio Garcia hacked up a couple of greens and went into one in a bunker and you think to yourself ‘What’s he got to worry about’.”

Carter booked his place in the semi-finals with a 5-1 victory over Gilbert.

‘The Captain’, who only hit one half-century break will f ace China’s Xiao Guodong.

Mark Allen