Mark Williams tricks the referee with a practical joke, but he instantly loses seven points.
Snooker players are now encouraged to be more gregarious, but Mark Williams discovered there’s a limit to how prankish they can go.
Mark Williams’ practical prank on snooker referee Olivier Marteel resulted in a seven-point penalty.
Williams, 48, was pitted against Hossein Vafaei in the Morningside Arena World Grand Prix. Marteel was changing the balls in the fifth round when the Welshman grabbed the white ball and pocketed it.
The official’s face lit up when he realized the cue ball was nowhere near where it should have been after the game was done. Marteel had the mother of all sense of humor fails after noticing Williams’ wicked smile.
“You know that’s a penalty seven,” a less than amused Marteel said as the World No. 8 revealed the ball from his pocket. Hossein receives a penalty of seven points. According to the regulations, you touched the ball within the consultation period.”
Williams rolled his eyes and turned to face the stunned audience, who went on to find the whole thing even more hilarious than it had been before. Luckily, it didn’t prevent the Welshman from moving on to the next round.
He then defeated the Iranians 4-1 to get a matchup with Yupeng Cao, the Chinese star. Even still, toward the end of the game, he was thinking about his severe penalty.
Following the match, Williams remarked, “World Snooker say ‘have a bit of fun, try and show your character’ and stuff like that.”
Because it took him a while to return, you do something like that for fun. I just scooped it up and placed it in my pocket, and I was fouled seven for it!
“What are they hoping to achieve? They want you to be yourself and enjoy yourself a little. I promise not to do it again since doing so earns you penalty points.”
