Snookered by Nominated Free Ball

[DeanH]

Finally, after so many years of being asked about and described it actually happened on a TV match

John Higgins misses the final Red.
Wu Yize has a Free Ball as he can not hit both sides of the ball on.
Wu Yize nominates the Pink but misses the pot and the Pink bounces back and stops between the Cue Ball, and the last Red.

if Start At does not work, scroll to 2:14:40

[Nifty50]

Thx Dean. Why the lengthy debate? Looks like Higins was leading the queries. Would expect him to know the rules. Maybe the score board got a bit mixed up to further complicate things.

[DeanH]

I believe from Jan ver Hass' explanation was that John thought it was not a free ball because he could see full-ball.
Where as you know both extreme edges must be able to be hit - not just full ball.
Also I think John was maybe wondering why in the first place the free ball was given to Wu in the first place; as (again) full ball could be struck but not both extreme edges.

I have noticed that this same referee in a match last year was not very good at explaining a situation, maybe his English is not good enough to explain situations outside the usual calls.

[Neil Taperell]

It won’t load for me , can you tell me how many points was awarded after he played the pink .

[DeanH]

It won’t load for me , can you tell me how many points was awarded after he played the pink .

4 as the Pink was Nominated as a Red for that shot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEacipw_SDc

With one red on the table - JH 39-48 WY
First Foul - Higgins missed the Red and hit the black - 7 penalty points [39-55]
Wu plays Pink as free ball, the free ball bounces back and snookers last red; foul, 4 penalty points, free ball awarded [43-55]
Higgins plays pink as free ball, scores 1 point (as being a Red for this shot. Pink spotted. [44-55]

I have not found a complete video with good sound so cannot hear what was said but I think the confusion is the explanation of the first free ball/foul, then the second freeball. and then the points (4) took some time to be added.

[Neil Taperell]

Cheers Dean

[jrc750]

Looks like Higgins making a meal of that, he clearly doesn't know the rules, and the call is in his favour, so why not just get on with things?

[Londonlad147]

I'm surprised that JH made such an issue there. I would have expected him to know that you cannot be snookered by the nominated free ball.

Having said that, at first I wasn't entirely convinced that the pink was stopping him from hitting the left hand side of the red, but given that Jan Verhaas also looked at the table, it must have been.

[DeanH]

I'm surprised that JH made such an issue there. I would have expected him to know that you cannot be snookered by the nominated free ball.

Having said that, at first I wasn't entirely convinced that the pink was stopping him from hitting the left hand side of the red, but given that Jan Verhaas also looked at the table, it must have been.

Why did the ref not do the "spare ball check" alongside the last red unless it was clearly a snooker?
Strange one, at least we have a televised example of this application of the rule