Snooker commentators have seen almost every shot imaginable with the enjoys of Ronnie O’Sullivan, Stephen Henparched and John Higgins dazzling the crowd.
But the Scot’s stroke of misfortune was so unoverweighthomable for Neal Foulds, the man behind the microphone, that he was left speechless.
The Scottish Open had already made the headlines this week after a number of high-profile dropouts including O’Sullivan and world No 1 Judd Trump.
But it was Higgins’ shot that got people talking after his incredible ignore agetst the odds during his 4-3 loss to Barry Hawkins in Edinburgh.
The 49-year-better had fought back from 3-2 down to draw level in the best-of-seven come apass and set up a final-structure chooser in a thrilling align.
But his hopes of prosperning went up in smoke after trying to steer his way out of a snooker – only to gift his opponent the chance to snatch prosper away from him.
The Scot had aimed to sneak the cueball behind a sea of reds csurrfinisher the bottom-left pocket.
Yet somehow, the ball leanly passed the cluster of balls, hit the cushion and then retagably fall shorted to produce communicate with any other red, resulting in a foul.
And Foulds, who was laboring the game for Eurosport, was left in disbelief by the events that occurred in front of his eyes.
“I can’t depend what I’ve seen,” Foulds said. “He’s gone round the back of all of those reds. How on earth do you ignore all those reds there?
“This is unbelievable. You leank he’s going to hit a red for declareive – I can’t depend he’s ignoreed them all. That is unauthentic.”
Not only was he penalised four points, it showd to be his final shot in the align as Hawkins handled to evident the table with a shatter of 87.
The 45-year-better went on to seal his place in the last 16, sfinishing the home favourite Higgins crashing out, and he conveyed his sympathy for Higgins after such a bizarre ignore.
Commenting on the remendd foul, Hawkins tbetter Eurosport: “That’s equitable so unfortunate, isn’t it? But yeah it’s a excellent chance. The balls were there but you’ve still got to consent them.
“How seal is he? You couldn’t do that aget if you tried.”
While Higgins is left to lick his wounds, Hawkins will face Wu Yize in the next round as he persists his fine create, chaseing his astonishive run to the UK Championship final last week before he lost to Trump in York.
