Shaun Murphy was far from impressed after a light came on at the Crucible as he played a shot, calling for an inquest into how it happened.
The Magician was locked at 8-8 with Fan Zhengyi in the opening round of the World Snooker Championship and on a blue to middle.
As he delivered the cue, the light on the other table which had been vacated after Judd Trump beat Gary Wilson, came on unexpectedly.
Murphy potted the ball, but said the strange occurrence impacted how he hit the shot and ultimately made the break more difficult.
The 2005 world champion went on to win the game 10-9 so was not exactly fuming after the match, but felt it was unacceptable and wants to know why it happened.
‘No, that was a new one,’ said Murphy when asked if that had happened to him before. ‘I’ve been coming here for a long time now and I’ve never had that happen before. It could hardly have happened at a more important moment. That was poor.
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‘We don’t ask for much as snooker players. Leave the lights off, is one of them.
‘It affected the shot, it affected the match. I was lucky the blue went in because literally as I was about to hit the ball I could see the reflection of the light come on the blue and it totally took my eye off. I was lucky the blue went in, but it really altered the way I was going to hit the ball. I didn’t get the pace in it I wanted, it affected the result of the shot.
‘I think World Snooker are having a bit of an inquest into how that happened because that shouldn’t happen.
‘I hope to find out because that should never happen.’
Asked how he would have felt if the incident had cost him the match, he said: ‘I would have been very upset, absolutely.
‘I came off the table straight after that frame and happened to see the tournament director in the corridor. I said, “Regardless of whether I win or lose, I think we need to look into what’s happened here.” I think I won that frame to go 9-8 ahead.
‘That shouldn’t happen. These are basics, but weird things happen at the Crucible. It’s only a few years since we had a pigeon in here.’
He added on TNT Sports: ‘I’ve never seen anything like that.
‘I’ve never seen the light come on a table here, just phantom. World Snooker are having an inquest, somebody might not be employed tomorrow.’
It was an eventful match, which saw Murphy brilliantly get over the line with a superb 50 clearance in the deciding frame.
After the first session, the 43-year-old called out a fan at the Crucible for criticising him mid-match and has reminded spectators that ‘this is not football.’
‘I think they were sat on the front row,’ said Murphy. ‘I played a blue in and out of baulk, as it came round I clipped the green, came off the cushion, cannoned into the reds. It was pretty much the shot I played, it was actually quite a good shot, I’ve definitely played worse shots.
‘Then literally as the applause died down, he went, “Shit shot.” It’s unlike me, I would normally confront somebody like that because we’re not football, you don’t behave like that at the Crucible.
‘As I got down to play the next red I was still thinking, “Jeez, maybe they’ve had a bit too much hospitality, they might have been enjoying the beer a bit too much,” and before I knew it I’d missed the red.
‘It was a lesson, I suppose, that if you’re disturbed start again.’
Murphy takes on Xiao Guodong in the second round, starting on Thursday.