Northern Ireland Open 2022: Luca Brecel takes dominant victory after Jimmy White has spat with referee
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Updated 18/10/2022 at 15:40 GMT
Luca Brecel claimed a dominant win over Jimmy White in the second round of the Northern Ireland Open, in a match that saw an awkward incident between The Whirlwind and referee Ben Williams in the final frame. White was given a warning after sticking a finger up at the referee, who had sparked a frosty exchange after laughing at calling the wrong ball. Stream top snooker action live on discovery+.
'What's funny about that?' - White in spat with referee, warned over finger incident
Luca Brecel cruised to a 4-0 victory against Jimmy White, who was given a warning by the referee, in the second round of the Northern Ireland Open.
In the fourth and final frame of the match, White called that he was going for the brown ball when playing a safety shot.
However, referee Ben Williams wrongly called “blue ball” then corrected himself by saying “brown ball” and started laughing.
White did not see the humorous side and asked “what’s funny about that” before raising his index finger towards the referee which he received a warning for.
Prior to that, White had his chances but missed some crucial balls which were punished by Brecel.
The Belgian Bullet made a century of 112 in the opener and won a scrappy second frame to double his lead.
White ran out of position and missed a red to the bottom left pocket in the next frame which allowed Brecel to seal the frame, before going on to win the match, ignoring the exchange between his opponent and the referee.
“I don’t know what happened,” said Brecel in the Eurosport studio.
“I just heard Jimmy say ‘what’s funny about that?’ because the referee was laughing.
“I think the referee was just trying to be nice [by] laughing a bit. But Jimmy wasn’t happy.”
Earlier on Tuesday, John Higgins was set for an early exit as he was 3-2 and 64 points down against Jackson Page, but came back to win on a decider.
Ding Junhui was beaten 4-3 by Michael White, whilst Barry Hawkins and David Gilbert progressed to the third round in Belfast.
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