Snooker Shoot Out 2021 - 'Absolute scenes!' - Sam Craigie's 'worst blunder ever' leads to drama
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Updated 04/02/2021 at 19:42 GMT
Sam Craigie was in total control of his match against Phil O’Kane in the first round of the Snooker Shoot Out when he inexplicably committed a foul. All he needed to do was to make contact with a red and the cushion to advance, but he failed to do so and had to advance via a blue ball shoot out, snooker's version of a penalty shoot-out.
Sam Craigie
Image credit: Eurosport
Sam Craigie advanced to the second round of the Snooker Shoot Out, but only after making "a huge blunder, one of the worst I’ve seen in Shoot Out history", according to Eurosport commentator Neal Foulds.
Craigie was 38-33 ahead of Phil O’Kane and at the table with the clock inside the final 10 seconds of the match.
All Craigie needed to do was make contact with a red and ensure either cue ball or object ball hit a cushion to confirm a legal shot.
Inexplicably, he went for a tight cut into the middle, but caught it too thin and as no ball made contact with a cushion, he was called for a five-point penalty.
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'Couldn't have done a worse thing!' - Extraordinary error leeds to shoot-out drama
“Wow,” was the reaction of Eurosport’s Foulds. “I’ve just seen it again and I cannot believe he has done that.
“What a thing to happen. Goodness me.
Many a player would be in complete shredsville after doing that.
“He made a huge blunder, one of the worst I’ve seen in Shoot Out history.”
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'If I lost there I would have been devastated' - Craigie on foul drama
“The foul is five points, which it wouldn’t be in normal snooker, but this is not normal snooker,” said Eurosport’s Dave Hendon. “He was five in front, which is why we are level.
“He couldn’t have done a worse thing.”
The foul took the match into a blue ball shoot-out - snooker's version of a penalty shoot-out - and to his credit, Craigie steeled himself to pot it on three occasions and he progressed 53-48 after O’Kane failed to convert.
“It is nice to get a win,” Craigie told Eurosport. “I just can’t believe I did not hit a cushion on that last red. If I'd lost there I'd have been devastated.
“My head was gone."
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