A coo for snooker: pigeon stops world championship action at Crucible

A pigeon briefly stopped play at the World Snooker Championship midway through the second round match between Mark Selby and Yan Bingtao. The bird fluttered down from among the television lights and landed on the top cushion during a brief break prior to the start of the sixth frame at the Crucible.

It was quickly ushered out of the arena through the players’ entrance, surprising defending champion Selby, who was returning to the arena at the time. Pigeons have been frequent visitors to Wimbledon’s service lines but it is believed to the first time they have invaded the Sheffield venue. BBC pundit John Virgo joked “where’s the pigeon going?”

Earlier at the Crucible, Mark Williams surged into the quarter-finals with a session to spare, wrapping up a dominant 13-3 win over his fellow Welshman and protege, Jackson Page.

The three-time world champion looked close to his best form as he compiled six centuries and eight further breaks of 50-plus. Resuming on Friday with a 7-1 advantage, Williams showed no mercy to his opponent, a close friend off the table who trains at his club in Tredegar.

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Opening with a break of 110 to move further in front, Williams then snatched the 10th frame with a clearance to the black after Page missed the last red, leaving him stranded on 69, the 20-year-old qualifier’s highest break of the match.

Two half-centuries in the next frame made it 10-1 for Williams, who was fulfilling his tongue-in-cheek claim that he wanted to “destroy” Page, who set up the meeting with an impressive first-round success over Barry Hawkins.

Page finally got a second frame on the board but Williams was ruthless, firing back-to-back