Snooker star Judd Trump certainly got a laugh from the crowd watching his World Championship quarter-final match with Stuart Bingham.
The 2019 world champion, who hails from Bristol, found that he had accidentally snookered himself as he chased a century break, The Mirror reports. He found himself stuck behind the pink with no obvious route to pot the brown, his next ball.
After assessing his options, it seemed that he'd only be able to play a shot off of multiple cushions, hoping for the best and no doubt keeping his fingers crossed as he did so. Eurosport commentator David Hendon even said: "Well it's going to be a trick shot if it's going to be a century."
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So instead, Trump decided that he would distract referee Ben Williams and move the pink ball with his hands in order to free a path to the brown - the crowd were in hysterics as he did so. Trump pointed towards the crowd after one fan coughed and suggested to the ref that there was a disturbance which could throw him off his game.
With the referee distracted, Trump quickly moved the pink and took his next shot before Williams had even the chance to turn around. By the time he had, the crowd in Sheffield were left in stitches, as balls flew around the table.
Eventually, the blue found a home in the bottom left pocket to add to the confusion for Williams before it became clear what had gone down. Trump returned to his chair with a huge smile on his face.
“Fantastic. Ben Williams fell right for that, didn’t he. ‘Look away, I’ll move the pink’,” continued Hendon after the incident.
“Things are turning round for Trump, he’s enjoying it suddenly. That was like something out a sitcom.”
After Trump found the funny side of competitive snooker, he secured the final three frames of the second session to draw level with Bingham at 8-8. The two men will play to a conclusion from 19:00 BST on Wednesday - with the winner set to face Mark Williams in the last four.
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