Ali Carter

[grumpy01]

I have just watched the VR of the incident the other night in the match between Ali Carter and John Higgins.Carter plays the white from the bottom end of the table towards baulk to hit the Yellow ball.He clearly misses the object ball and the young woman referee calls foul he tells her he hit it and the foul call is revoked.So is he blatantly cheating or does he need glasses?

[aelmpvw]

having watched the replay i think ali carter needs the glasses but the referee's decision should be final

[Lie-in King]

Yes, he should've gone to Specsavers & Ms Bozhilova needed to stick with her - correct - decision.

"Blatantly cheating"? Probably not, but perhaps an adrenaline rush caused his response? I'm trying to be charitable, he's always struck me as an honest player.

He'd surely know (back of the brain, subconsciously) that the shot would be shown in replay to have been a foul & therefore must've believed he was right.

VAR for snooker? Hmm...

The shot in question can be seen here - https://tinyurl.com/sfd6otr

[grumpy01]

Yes,I think both of you have summed this up correctly.

[grumpy01]

Further to this, would like to see Dave Gilbert break through now and win the tournament.

[dannyk13]

The referee should not have reversed her decision.

[Bazile]

I don't think he was cheating

I looked at this yesterday
Replay does show it was a miss

However it was so close that I can see that in the moment of playing the shot that he thought it had touched

[aelmpvw]

conversely, professional snooker players are well known for calling a foul on themselves that the ref has missed

[THECORBYLOON]

They could have watched the replay on one of the cameras to confirm the miss.

[Lie-in King]

Corby - exactly, the refs use screenshots when replacing balls, a quick look would've settled the matter.

Carter apologises, the ref's CV doesn't have a blot on it & Higgins breathes a sigh of relief.

[Khandro]

Perhaps snooker matches need a snickometer like cricket

[THECORBYLOON]

At the time, the commentators asked if the second referee could see the replays. They were showing the second referee (who could hear them) and he shook his head in response.

When the system used to re-place the balls has failed, I have seen them use the monitor on one of the cameras.

The ref should have stuck to her guns.

[New Judge]

I saw the incident live. There was no way that the yellow ball was struck, either on the way past it first time or on the way back. The referee was wrong to reverse her decision. I don't think Carter was deliberately cheating. He obviously believed he had struck the ball. But that's why sports have referees.

On a point of pedantry:

//Carter plays the white from the bottom end of the table towards baulk to hit the Yellow ball//

This is the second time this week I have heard the "black" end of the table being referred to as the bottom end. I've always understood the black end to be the top end of the table with the baulk end being the bottom (or "the long grass" during a safety exchange early in the frame when plenty of reds are left).

[douglas9401]

You're right in the real world, New Judge, but in telly land the black end's the bottom and left is right.

[THECORBYLOON]

They refer to the black end as being the "top" on tv still.

[grumpy01]

Geography of the Snooker table duly noted.