Xiao Guodong plays highly unusual shot on the yellow against Judd Trump in first round match at UK Championship

Updated 15/11/2022 at 18:15 GMT

Xiao Guodong played an unusual shot on the yellow against Judd Trump in the first round of the UK Championship. Xiao arched himself over the cue ball to hit it backwards to tap the yellow, which left Trump with a tricky shot, which is sometimes known as a "Chinese snooker". Stream the 2022 UK Championship and more top snooker action live and on-demand on discovery+.

‘It’s legal but I would not recommend it’ – Xiao plays unusual shot against Trump

Xiao Guodong played an unorthodox shot in his first round match against Judd Trump at the UK Championship.

At the start of the eighth frame, Xiao potted a great long red, but the cue ball ended up just underneath the yellow.

Needing to hit a colour, Xiao elected to play a safety shot on the yellow, but the way he did it was unusual to say the least.

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He bridged over the yellow and white and hit the cue ball backwards towards him, which is very rare in snooker.

“Well he’s going to play some kind of a shot here,” said Eurosport commentator Neal Foulds.

“Extraordinary business. He pointed the cue in the opposite direction, over the top of the yellow and there’s not much of a nice shot for Judd here. It’s legal but I wouldn’t recommend it!”

Trump was left with what is sometimes known as a “Chinese snooker”, when you can only hit the top of the cue ball due to another ball being in the way.

This makes the ball very hard to hit, but Trump played a good next shot and was set to win the frame. However, he ran out of position and allowed Xiao to steal the frame.

Trump won the UK Championship in 2011 and made the final in 2014 and 2020.

Mark Selby and Shaun Murphy are in action on Tuesday evening.

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Stream the 2022 UK Championship and more top snooker action live and on-demand on discovery+.

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