'Incredible!' - Disbelief at 'crazy' situation in Ronnie O'Sullivan v Stephen Maguire World Championship game

There was disbelief over the positioning of the balls during the opening frame of Ronnie O'Sullivan and Stephen Maguire's quarter-final at the World Championship. Maguire held a 41-6 lead early on in the first frame of the match with the tension in the Crucible palpable for the last-eight clash in Sheffield. Ad/> That was when the Scot was confronted with a bizarre layout of balls on the table from O'Sullivan with five reds pinned to the same side cushion.

/> World Championship'I've never seen them like that before' — O'Sullivan v Maguire frame gets strangeAN HOUR AGO But that was not it. Somehow, the blue, green and brown were all clustered over the top-right corner pocket next to each other, making the situation all the more perplexing. Neither player knew quite what to do.

Maguire rolled a half-hearted safety off a red with the white flying back up to baulk and pushing the green right next to the pocket without committing a foul. Next up, O'Sullivan hit the only open-table red into the pack lodged up against the side cushion, leaving all six effectively out of play while also clipping the green and pushing it closer to the corner pocket. «Oh! Where are all these balls going to end up?» wondered Eurosport expert Neal Foulds, on commentary at the time.