World Championship snooker 2021 - 'Outrageous fluke' - Ken Doherty apologises for crazy shot

Updated 07/04/2021 at 07:25 GMT

Former world champion Ken Doherty benefited from an "outrageous fluke" in his qualifying match against Lee Walker for the 2021 World Championship main draw. Doherty ended up apologising to his opponent for the wild shot. World Championship qualifying is live and exclusive on the Eurosport app and eurosport.co.uk.

'Outrageous fluke' - Doherty apologises for crazy shot

There was a quite incredible fluke on Tuesday as Ken Doherty got much more than a slice of luck against his opponent, Lee Walker, in World Championship qualifying.

The 51-year-old, who won his sole world title back in 1997, is among the big names attempting to bring back his glory years at the Crucible by qualifying for the main draw.

Doherty was locked in a tense battle with Walker when he attempted a safety shot, which he got pretty badly wrong, and ended up benefiting from what was a crazy fluke.

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As the red zoomed into the corner pocket, the Irishman could be heard saying sorry to his opponent before settling back to the table for his next shot.

Former player Neal Foulds was on commentary for Eurosport at the time and could not believe the outcome of the shot.

"He did not cover the cue ball from the red to the middle so that was a big fluke," Foulds said.

Well, that is a pretty outrageous fluke, because he did not play a very good shot!

"You heard him say sorry."

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One of the other big names from qualifying, Jimmy White, is now out of the draw entirely after he suffered a disappointing 6-3 defeat to fellow snooker legend Stephen Hendry on Monday evening.

In a match that was high on nostalgia but low on quality, seven-time world champion Hendry eventually prevailed at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield to move within three matches of a Crucible return.