There was a strange incident during Wednesday evening’s session of snooker at the British Open with both Barry Hawkins and Jak Jones bemused by the officiating of referee Ben Williams.
Hawkins and Jones were contesting their round-of-32 fixture at the Centaur in Cheltenham when they had an audible disagreement with the referee over a desired re-rack.
The strange situation transpired during the fourth frame, with recent English Open semi-finalist Jones leading 2-1 at the time.
With the pink ball covering one of the corner pockets at the top end of the table, the players got bogged down in a safety battle whereby they took turns pushing reds over in that direction.
It was obvious that a lengthy tactical exchange was going to ensue, so Jones and Hawkins decided among themselves that a re-rack would be the best course of action to take.
Yet upon making their feelings clear to referee Williams, the official initially refused to cede to their request.
“It’s not a stalemate, gents. It’s not a stalemate,” Ben Williams, who made headlines in 2022 for a fiery exchange with Jimmy White, clearly said to the players.
“It’s going to be a long frame if we keep knocking balls over there. What’s the point of playing on?” a vexed Hawkins replied.
“What, you think that’s not a stalemate?” Jones added while pointing towards the cluster of balls at the other end of the table.
“It’s not a stalemate, because you’re just playing safety shots. A stalemate is when you’re stuck in one position for a long time,” Williams replied before Hawkins quipped that “we’re going to be here all night then.”
“That’s rubbish,” the Hawk continued. “There’s loads of people who have re-racks when you know it’s going to be a long frame.”
Williams eventually yielded and a re-rack duly followed with Hawkins eventually taking the fourth frame and winning the match 4-3.
It was, however, an unnecessary moment of distraction for the players involved which left Neal Foulds and Phil Yates equally bemused in the ITV commentator’s box.
“My mouth is as wide open as the middle pockets right now,” addressed a fuming Yates. “I cannot believe he didn’t accede to the players’ request.”
“He said you can’t mutually agree on a re-rack. We see that scores of times over the course of a season – scores of times!
“Of course the two players can get their heads together and have a re-rack. What was the problem?”
At any rate, Hawkins was one of eight players who managed to book their places in the last 16 of the season’s fifth ranking event.
Among the others to make it through to the fourth round of the competition were John Higgins and Stan Moody.
After emerging from two close matches in deciding frames, Higgins defied a brace of century breaks from Zhao Xintong to beat the world champion 4-2.
Moody continued his strong start to the 2025/26 campaign with a similar result against Ian Burns, and there were victories elsewhere for Anthony McGill, Liam Davies, Louis Heathcote, Mitchell Mann, and up-and-coming Chinese talent Chang Bingyu.
The remaining round-of-32 fixtures will take place on Thursday afternoon with a couple of humdinger ties to look forward to.
Mark Williams, the British Open champion in two out of the last four editions, meets last weekend’s English Open champion Mark Allen while Neil Robertson entertains Shaun Murphy.
World number one Judd Trump and reigning 2024 British Open winner Mark Selby will also be hoping to advance further when they face Martin O’Donnell and Joe O’Connor respectively.
2025 British Open Draw
Round of 32 (bo7)
Iulian Boiko vs Ali Carter
Zhang Anda vs Xiao Guodong
Zak Surety 0-4 Louis Heathcote
Ben Mertens vs Robbie McGuigan
Antoni Kowalski 2-4 Mitchell Mann
John Higgins 4-2 Zhao Xintong
Judd Trump vs Martin O’Donnell
Barry Hawkins 4-3 Jak Jones
Stan Moody 4-2 Ian Burns
Cheung Ka Wai vs Lei Peifan
Joe O’Connor vs Mark Selby
Noppon Saengkham 3-4 Chang Bingyu
Anthony McGill 4-1 Oliver Lines
Mark Williams vs Mark Allen
Liam Davies 4-2 David Lilley
Shaun Murphy vs Neil Robertson
Last 16 (bo7)
Chang Bingyu vs O’Connor/Selby
Cheung/Lei vs Williams/Allen
John Higgins vs Mertens/McGuigan
Mitchell Mann vs Barry Hawkins
Murphy/Robertson vs Trump/O’Donnell
Stan Moody vs Boiko/Carter
Zhang/Xiao vs Anthony McGill
Liam Davies vs Louis Heathcote
Click here for the update results and draw (snooker.org)
Featured photo credit: WST
