Mark Williams offered his cue to a heckler at the Crucible who called out “come on Mark” during his World Snooker Championship second round match against Barry Hawkins. Last year’s finalist was trailing his opponent 7-4 at the time and taking a while to line up a particularly tricky shot.
The heckle came while the Welshman was deliberating over how to play it, though Williams took the outburst firmly in his stride. In response to the shout, he held up his cue toward them and said, “Here you are,” inviting them to take it for him. However, they unsurprisingly did not take up the offer.
Williams, 51, went on to claim the frame and cut the deficit to 7-5 at the mid-session interval on Friday evening. Nevertheless, it was far from his finest display after fluking the pink following a missed attempt on the middle pocket, somehow sending it into the yellow pocket after travelling diagonally across the table.
Stephen Hendry was quick to highlight the significance afterwards, telling the BBC: “Barry Hawkins has been by far the better player. Mark Williams’ game has been littered with unforced errors right from the first frame. What a result to get that last frame, because he was all over the place. He just couldn’t pot the pink.”
That heckle was not the only bit of banter Williams has had to contend with this week. Crucible announcer Rob Walker introduced the Welshman with a playful dig at his expense ahead of his first round match against Antoni Kowalski.
He announced over the theatre speakers: “29 years ago on this very day, it was his turn to be the fresh-faced 22-year-old debutant, with boyish good looks, a full head of hair and perfect vision. How little has changed in the intervening years!
“He hasn’t been to a barber in decades, but lest we forget, he remains one of our all-time greats. Finalist at 49, three times a champion du monde, it wouldn’t be a Worlds without Willo. Here he comes, the irrepressible, irreplaceable Mark J. Williams!”
“Look, I don’t mind what Rob says. He said to me: ‘You don’t get upset, do you?’ I say: ‘Rob, come on, you can say whatever you want to me, I couldn’t give a monkey’s. Just say what you want. I didn’t think he was coming out with that! That was a good one. He’s going to have to up that next time, now.