Mark Selby claimed a third UK Championship title on Sunday after beating Judd Trump 10-8 in a dramatic match, which could have been a bit more comfortable if it weren’t for a controversial moment.
The Jester from Leicester opened up a big lead early on, racing into a 5-0 lead and was 7-3 ahead in the evening session when there was a lengthy pause in play.
Trump was snookered on the last red and failed to hit it, with the referee then calling a free ball, which would have handed Selby an easy chance to win the frame.
It was a tight call from Olivier Marteel and Trump questioned it, believing that you could hit both sides of the remaining red.
The referee was sticking to his guns, but Selby had a look and agreed with Trump, sportingly claiming it wasn’t a free ball to his own detriment.
Trump would go on to fluke the red while escaping the snooker and win the frame, despite pundits believing the players were wrong and the referee right all along.
After the match Selby still felt that the right call was made, telling TNT Sports: ‘I just let them two deal with it themselves at the start. I didn’t want to get too involved, I’ll leave it to Olivier to have a second look when he puts the reds back.
‘Once he decided it’s a free ball, I thought there’s no way in the world I’ll just come to the table and just take it, I thought I’d have a look first. To be fair to Judd, he was right, I didn’t think it was a free ball.
‘Olivier is one of the best refs in our game, but I didn’t think it was a free ball. I think I could hit the other side.
‘I know the referee’s decision is final, but if I’d have just come to the table, played and didn’t even have a look I’d never forgive myself if I looked back and thought it wasn’t a free ball.’
The camera angle shown on television makes it look quite clearly like a free ball, but Selby insists that from his viewpoint at the table it wasn’t.
‘Looking at that [on television] it looks a free ball, from where I was and what I looked at I thought I could hit it,’ he said.
Steve Davis, on punditry duty for the BBC, felt the referee was right all along and the mistake Selby made was he didn’t look at the situation with an extra red placed by the yellow to confirm that the edge of the red was blocked.
‘Well, it was a free ball. Olivier Marteel got it right,’ said the six-time world champion. ‘You can see from the picture that the closest you could get to the yellow meant that you couldn’t hit the extreme edge of the right hand side of the red.
‘Mark Selby came round to have a check, but he didn’t ask Olivier Marteel to put that extra red in to prove it. So he was using judgement the same as Judd was to start with.
‘I think Mark Selby needs a slight slap on the wrist for not asking for that red to be put by the yellow.’
Thankfully for Selby the decision did not cost him in the end and he won a third UK title and a 10th Triple Crown, with four World Championships and three Masters titles also to his name.
That takes him above John Higgins in terms of the three biggest tournaments, only behind Ronnie O’Sullivan (23), Stephen Hendry (18) and Steve Davis (15).
‘To win any tournament nowadays is so difficult. I put so much emphasis on these Triple Crown events,’ said Selby. ‘I always try that little bit harder and the pressure is greater. These are the events I judge my CV on. It is nice to get to double figures.
‘It is incredible to go above John Higgins in Triple Crown wins. I’ve looked up to him for years. When I was a young lad, he was at the top of his game and he is still top of his game now. To know I’m in front of him by one is incredible. He is still capable of winning Triple Crown events himself and it wouldn’t surprise me if he did it this season. I get on with him really well, so I can have a bit of banter about that.’