Historic slow day at The Crucible as semi is halted
Snooker snails Mark Selby and Stuart Bingham yesterday made history for all the wrong reasons at the Betfred World Championship.
For the first time ever a semi-final at the sport’s biggest event was hauled off for slow play with three-time champion Selby 16-15 ahead of the 2015 winner.
The potting plodders lost the advantage of being the first semi-final and getting the night off as they were forced to wait for Shaun Murphy versus Kyren Wilson to finish first.
Cliff Thorburn, nicknamed The Grinder, and Terry Griffiths famously finished a second-round Crucible snoozefest at 3.51am in 1983.
Six-time world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan memorably labelled Selby as “the torturer” in his 2013 autobiography for his willingness to grind opponents down when he’s not playing well.
Selby was warned for slow play by referee Ben Williams during Friday night’s session for taking almost three minutes over a shot.
And Bingham won a lengthy 54-minute battle to finish that session 13-11 ahead.
Selby’s spirited comeback forced the players to be pulled off early due to overrunning.
Once play resumed yesterday afternoon, there were two re-racks in the 26th frame – the second after 31 minutes – before Selby sunk a break of 125 to level at 13-13.
There were two further frames over half-an-hour each as Selby clawed himself 16-14 ahead after winning seven out of nine frames.
But Bingham dug deep with a crucial clearance before the players sheepishly ran out of time with two potential frames left to play.
Scottish snooker legend Stephen Hendry, a BBC pundit, said: “Mark Selby is a bit like that character who just has a big cloak that he puts over his victims and that is what he has done to Stuart Bingham and this match.
“We usually say that the semi-finalist who wins in the afternoon gets the advantage of getting the night off, which they obviously won’t have now.”
Judd Trump, the 2019 champion, was adamant his legacy would be defined by appealing to a wider audience more so than Crucible title triumphs.
The world No. 1 entertains spectators with his flashy style, much like Alex Higgins, Jimmy White and Ronnie O’Sullivan over the years.
Trump is the face of the sport and wants to modernise the game to attract new viewers.
But this turgid masterclass left people scrambling for their TV remotes to find another form of Saturday afternoon entertainment.
Former world champion Ken Doherty said: “I feel sorry for them because they have been involved in a pulsating match with so much at stake and they have to come back tonight.
“It’s unfortunate they had to come off because we were all on the edge of our seats watching it.
“They will be shattered and so tired. Unfortunately the guys are coming in for the other semi-final and getting ready to play and it’s unfair on them if they have to wait.”
A World Snooker Tour spokesperson said: “It’s always been the rule that the players are pulled off approximately 45 minutes before the next session starts to get fans in and out of the arena.”