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Snooker star David Lilley was left ruing a bizarre foul as his chalk hampered his progress at the UK Championship. During the fifth frame of his qualifying match against Elliot Slessor, Lilley attempted to get back into the contest but once his chalk fell out of his pocket, the advantage was handed to his opponent.
At the Morningside Arena, Lilley and Slessor were fighting for a place at the UK Championship in the Barbican, York. Lilley was 3-1 down in the first-to-six contest but having created a 12-point lead and found himself with the perfect position on the green, had a chance of getting back into the match.
He sent the green into the top corner but after lifting his body up off the table, Lilley’s chalk accidentally fell out of his pocket and onto the table. Unfortunately for the 48-year-old, that chalk fell right into the path of the cue ball that had been screwed back and the white hit the chalk.
Lilley was unaware until it was too late that his chalk had broken loose, forcing him to hand over four points to Slessor and the opportunity to win the frame. Immediately after realising what had happened, Lilley hung his head over the table in bewilderment, then later in the match he could be seen placing his chalk on the rail between shots to avoid a repeat of the bizarre foul.
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“Oh my goodness me,” Eurosport commentator Steven Hallworth said. “He pots the green and his chalk comes out of his pocket and he’s screwed straight into it. Time must have stood still there for David Lilley. You cannot catch your breath here at the Morningside Arena. You think you have seen everything there is to see in this game, and you haven’t. That is unbelievable.”
Lilley was unable to recover from the foul and lost 6-3 to Slessor, who will face Zhang Anda in the last 16 of the UK Championship having benefitted from an unexpected chalk foul to win the frame.
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Social media was flabbergasted when video footage of the foul emerged on X (formerly known as Twitter), as @pjneedham40 joked: “Chalk it up to experience. (Ahem).” While @GloryHuntingMU felt that the situation was avoidable, they wrote: “Karma for putting chalk on the table to begin with.”
Snooker referee Tatiana Woollaston gave her view on the incident, writing: “Nothing unusual here just the cue ball running over the chalk #thefirst”.
Lilley will likely think twice about having his chalk in his pocket from now on in order to avoid another moment leaving him with his head in his hands at the table.
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