'Stubborn' Mark Allen speaks out on controversial record-breaking Crucible frame

Allen and his young Chinese opponent Wu were involved in one of the most extraordinary frames in Crucible history during the second session of their memorable semi-final.

Having trailed 6-2 after the first session - which featured a power outage in frame three that caused television pictures to be temporarily cut off - current English Open champion Allen battled back on Friday afternoon, winning five consecutive frames - highlighted by centuries of 145 and 121 - to turn the tables and take the lead.

But the biggest talking point of the day were the bizarre scenes witnessed in frame 14 that led to the longest frame in Crucible history.

Former world number one Allen was well-placed to secure another frame but missed a fairly routine black ball and left it over the corner pocket. As the frame ‘progressed’, the reds gravitated towards the black and blocked pocket, until the point when no pot was available, and the players were trying to avoid fouling by knocking the black in.

With the audience - and commentators - getting restless with the impasse, this year’s final referee Rob Spencer emerged from the backstage tournament office to seemingly issue Eckardt instructions.

Eckardt - who had been hoping the black would have dropped to end the stalemate - informed the players that they would each have three more shots to resolve the situation, otherwise the frame would be re-racked.

Allen - who had a 34-point advantage at this stage - was not happy with this decision, and ended up deliberately potting the black so the frame could continue. It was the first pot in over 55 minutes.

However, he left reds on into the previous clogged pocket, and Wu managed to get in front before later eventually taking the frame to draw level at 7-7.

The frame lasted just over 100 minutes, comfortably smashing the previous longest frame ever played at the Crucible of 85 minutes ‘set’ by Mark Selby and Yan Bingtao in 2022.

Speaking in his post-match interview at the Crucible, Allen - who has big respect for former world final referee Eckardt - talked about the peculiar experience, that even saw the Crucible audience get involved with ironic chanting and slow clapping.

“Definitely not digging Marcel out because I think he’s probably our best ref and I said that to him after the session finished. I think he could have handled it better” said the Northern Irishman.

“I think he could have definitely called time a bit earlier and given us a chance to sort it out earlier or take the re-rack and get on with another frame.

“The reason I was sort of being stubborn with it is because we’d played for an hour before he called it and I was like, ‘I’ve invested so much into this’.

“I felt like I was always being the aggressor in that safety, trying to force a mistake from Wu and he was just dropping into the reds and I don’t really know what Marcel expected me to do.

“I was definitely the one being the aggressor, trying to force that mistake from Wu, trying to get him a snooker up the top of the table so he would knock the black in.”

The unprecedented frame was one piece of an unforgettable world championship semi-final encounter within the one-table set-up in Sheffield.

Having got himself 16-14 up, Allen missed a black off its spot in frame 30 to reach his maiden world final, having earlier missed a straightforward - under normal circumstances, anyway - final red when in prime position to also get the job done.

In the deciding frame, Wu was put off by a deliberate disturbance in the crowd before Allen went on to make a 47 break that was halted when he ran out of position after going into reds. Reigning International Champion Wu later compiled a match-winning effort of 71 to somehow book a spot in the final.

To view the full draw, results, schedule, and other information from the 2026 World Snooker Championship, visit our tournament information centre here.