ROCKET BARGED OUT
Snooker latest
RILED Ronnie O’Sullivan lost his head and barged opponent Ali Carter before crashing out of the Betfred World Championship.
In a moment of madness, title favourite O’Sullivan appeared to barge Carter in the 19th frame of his 13-9 defeat at the Crucible.
The unprecedented incident occurred with O’Sullivan 10-8 behind in the pair’s second-round grudge match in Sheffield.
Carter spiced things up in the build up to the match when he criticised World Snooker, the sport’s governing body, for running what he deemed the ‘Ronnie O’Sullivan show’.
‘The Captain’ had lost two world titles to his arch-rival and was angered when he couldn’t even get in his dressing room for his first-round match, as O’Sullivan had overstayed his welcome.
Things came to a head when the pair locked horns at the table and referee Paul Collier was forced to step in. Five-time winner O’Sullivan said: ‘Sometimes you have to stand your ground, you get barged by someone once, I’m not a limbo dancer.
‘I don’t get angry unless there’s justification there. I’m a good guy.
‘But, I don’t think I have anything to apologise for. Sometimes you just touch each other.
‘Formula One has it all the time, they have contact in cars and we have contact in humans.’
Official Collier did not issue either player a warning, which could have resulted in disciplinary action. But it’s not the first time O’Sullivan has lost his composure during a match. He famously quit a match when 4-1 down against Stephen Hendry at the 2006 UK Championship in York. Carter has overcome cancer and constantly battled Crohn’s disease in a testing career. And he stressed he would not be bullied by O’Sullivan on snooker’s grandest stage. ‘He barged me,’ rapped Carter, after his first ranking win over the Rocket in 14 attempts. ‘But I’m not going to be bullied by anyone. ‘I’ve been through a lot in my life and a lot harder things than a shoulder barge. ‘If I fell and rolled on the floor that’s not me and it can’t be me, that’s impossible. ‘If I barged him earlier then it’s tit for tat. It didn’t go too far though as he didn’t head-butt me.’ Once back in his seat following the barging incident, O’Sullivan said to Carter: ‘That’s for being Mr Angry.’
He then told Carter it was his turn to play, sparking Carter to respond: ‘Thank you very much, very nice of you.”
‘Stop being angry then,’ O’Sullivan replied.
Referee Collier intervened and said: ‘Right fellas, just play on’, with O’Sullivan then saying he was ‘cool as a cucumber’.
Carter resumed with a 9-7 lead and remained focused to keep O’Sullivan at bay and end the Rocket’s charge for a sixth world crown.
While all the shenanigans were going on, Scotland’s four-time world champion John Higgins was making serene progress in his match with Jack Lisowski.
He won all eight frames in their first session and only needs five more today to reach the last eight.
Earlier, Barry Hawkins fended off young Chinese player Lyu Haotian to win 13-10 in their last16 clash. And Kyren Wilson eased past Wales’ Jamie Jones 13-5.