Jimmy White is still winning big matches into his sixties (Picture: Getty Images)
Jimmy White scored a huge win at the Northern Ireland Open on Monday as the 62-year-old beat Hossein Vafaei 4-2 in one of the craziest matches you will see all season.
It was a big upset for the veteran to beat the world number 24 and the Whirlwind admitted that it was a very unusual contest with a number of situations you hardly ever see on a snooker table.
‘It was very tough, I’m desperate to try and get a win, get going,’ White told Eurosport. ‘A couple of times I’m on 40, go into the pack, nowhere.
‘My safety was alright, but there was a lot of mistakes, a lot of misses. It was a bizarre game.’
He added when speaking to World Snooker Tour: ‘It was bizarre, it was really weird.’
Vafaei set the tone early when in the first frame he tried to pot the brown but saw the ball hop out of the jaws of the green pocket, roll along the rail and drop into the yellow bag.
Neal Foulds on Eurosport commentary said: ‘That’s about a once in every five year fluke, extraordinary. It is a legal shot, in case you were wondering. I have seen that, probably in all the years, seven or eight times.’
Hossein Vafaei just did THIS! ð±#NIOpen | #BVHomeNations | @BetVictor pic.twitter.com/o5PblOeYXg
— WST (@WeAreWST) October 21, 2024
That was an odd moment but it had nothing on the controversy of the final frame of the match when Kevin Dabrowski called a very rarely-seen foul on Vafaei.
White had gone in-off, so the Iranian placed the ball in the D to play his next shot, at least he thought he had.
Vafaeipotted a long red but the referee immediately called a foul and said that the white ball was outside the D when he played the shot.
There was much confusion as Vafaei questioned the decision and asked for a replay to be shown but Dabrowksi stuck to his call and White came back to the table.
It was extremely close but the referee was adamant, with former Masters champion Alan McManus agreeing with him on Eurosport after analysing the footage.
“Never seen that before” ð³
The referee ‘100% sure’ on controversial Vafaei foul because the white ball was out of the D ð§ pic.twitter.com/ImBmVsut3C
— Eurosport (@eurosport) October 21, 2024
There were plenty of other incidents as well, with both players giving away fouls while playing with the rest and White handing an icnredible 36 points away while trying to get out of one snooker, then going on to win the frame!
The Whirlwind also progressed without making a singel half-century as Vafaei’s 55 was the highest break of the match.
The six-time World Championship finalist now faces Martin O’Donnell in the last 32 in Belfast on Wednesday and is feeling great after downing the Prince of Persia.
‘I’ve been playing some really good stuff but when you’ve not got any confidence…listen …read more
Source:: Metro
