World Snooker Championship debutant He Guoqiang left Ronnie O’Sullivan questioning the referee during their first round match at the Crucible after committing a rare push shot foul. The incident took place late in the third frame, which the seven-time champion won to take a 3-0 lead in Sheffield, and inside an hour of their match starting on day four of the tournament.
BBC commentator Dennis Taylor spotted the foul straight away, saying in sync with the referee’s call: “He’s pushed it, can you believe it, you don’t see that very often. Very rarely do you see a professional play a push shot.” The 1985 champion then explained: “He had to play that with bottom, Ken (addressing co-commentator Ken Doherty), he sort of hit the white in the middle there.
O’Sullivan went as far as asking He, “Do you feel it was a foul?” before playing the next shot after benefiting from a free ball. His opponent mouthed “yeah, it was a foul” and nodded his head after taking a seat, which was enough for the Crucible veteran to proceed.
Taylor then remarked: “Ronnie’s saying, ‘Are you sure it was a foul?’ It definitely was a push shot, Ronnie.” Doherty also agreed, adding: “Yeah, it was.”
BBC presenter Hazel Irvine addressed the incident after that frame ended with O’Sullivan wrapping it up. The host said: “One way traffic so far and all going Ronnie O’Sullivan’s way – and not helped, I suspect, from his opponent’s perspective by a push shot. [It’s] rather rare that we see these in the heat of battle…”
John Parrott responded: “It’s not a push, it’s a shove! It’s very rare for a top-class player to play; the two balls just go for a walk, very unusual.”
His fellow pundit Stephen Hendry had some words of wisdom for O’Sullivan’s opponent. “He’s not putting Ronnie under any pressure at the minute,” he said.
“He’s potting good balls but not stringing anything together, the only way you can put Ronnie and top players under pressure is to score heavily and take your chances. If you’re not going to do that, then this match is going to get ugly very quickly.”
He eventually won the sixth frame to make it 5-1. Doherty said on commentary: “That will give He Guoqiang a little bit of confidence. Eventually, he got his first frame on the board this afternoon. He waited a long time, but it was worth waiting for.”
Hendry also highlighted a couple of ‘world-class pots’ the Chinese player made. He said: “He Guoqiang has missed a lot of easy balls today, but the yellow and green in that frame were world-class pots from awkward positions.”