Snooker expert exclaims ‘Oh my God’ in ‘nightmare’ incident at Northern Ireland Open | Others | Sport

Eurosport analyst Neal Foulds was shocked by a ‘nightmare’ mistake by Oliver Lines at the Northern Ireland Open. The 29-year-old entered the match against Mark Allen as the underdog and took a while to get going in the first half.

Lines tried to plant it on the right fence, but missed by some distance, giving Allen the opportunity to find his rhythm. Upon returning to the table, Lines left the mark with a red in the right corner, but was not covered in glory with the next shot.

The Leeds man was left with a strange cut in the black and needed the rest to have a chance of finding the pocket. He ended up pocketing it perfectly, but his cue slipped out of his hand, resulting in Lines dropping the cue ball on his way back.

Lines gave a wry smile as he returned to his seat, his mistake putting Allen in charge from the start.

Foulds was controlling the match for Eurosport and said: “Oh my God! This is one of those nightmare scenarios. You can’t get the equipment out quickly enough. It’s something that leaves you smiling.

“It actually made a huge difference. He would have been after the red, but he just couldn’t get the equipment out quickly enough. Just watch this. Oh, my God, that’s an absolute nightmare scenario for anyone.”

Lines recovered from his glaring error to win the first frame, with Allen wasting two chances to seal it for himself. The latter hopes to regain the title in front of his home fans, having won the Northern Ireland Open in 2021 and 2022.

Earlier this week, Allen lashed out at the World Snooker Tour, accusing bosses of having their “favourite” stars and suggesting he was being denied the level of coverage he deserved.

Reflecting on his brief stint at the top of the world rankings in the summer, Allen said: “It was a bit anticlimactic. It wasn’t very pleasant, to be honest. I feel like I got really bad coverage from the governing body.

“I didn’t get a lot of coverage here (in Northern Ireland), even though I showed up at events and wasn’t at the top table all the time. of yourself.

“It was a bit of a turnaround really. I feel like World Snooker has its favorites and that’s it.”