Confusing ruling - can anyone clear up?

[scottley]

I also think JV was wrong actually.

Selby could've asked Alan to clean the black ball couldn't he? That would
have been an easy way to see where it was.

Exactly what i thought at the time, might be frowned upon slightly, not sure how it would be viewed?

[DawRef]

Can a player take a ball marker out of his pocket , and just `hover it` a 1/4 inch over the spot to check if the ball will spot, but not allowing the marker to touch the cloth?

If a player done that whils't I was refereeing, he would be fouled and docked 7 points. He is still using an object to measure the gap and/or distance. (Section 3 Rule 12(d)(ii)).

[The Statman]

I haven't seen this thread before, but I would comment as follows. I was at the Selby-Dott match and saw that incident, but did not see the one involving Robertson and Jan Verhaas.

John Virgo was quite correct in saying that the referee may not help a player by saying whether a ball will spot. I remember Mark Selby cheekily asking Alan Chamberlain whether the black would spot – I'm sure it was said sarcastically and he did not expect the help he requested.

By the sound of it, in the Robertson incident, Jan Verhaas had to re-spot the pink and, checking the spot, found it would not go and so put it on the yellow spot. Robertson then asked Verhaas if he was sure it wouldn't go.

Verhaas then re-checked the spot and showed Robertson with the ball marker in place, that the pink would not spot.

These are two very different scenarios. A player is quite entitled to query a decision of the referee. Showing Robertson that it would not spot did not offer Robertson any new information – if he hadn't queried it, he would still have known that the pink spot was occupied; otherwise the referee would have put the pink there.