Mark Selby rages at snooker chiefs as ‘horrific’ Crucible complaint made | Other | Sport

Furious Mark Selby slammed the “horrific” table conditions following his shock exit from the World Snooker Championship. The four-time champion conceded his own performance was “pathetic” as he crashed out 13-11 to Wu Yize. But Selby also launched a scathing attack on the Crucible baize, declaring: “I felt like I let the table get to me a little bit. The conditions were probably as bad as I’ve experienced here at the World Championships, for sure.

“Even the [first-round] game against Jak Jones, I felt like the table was absolutely horrific. Jak said the same to me. Last night they re-covered it and I still felt it was really heavy and pingy as well. That’s not the reason why I’ve lost, but it’s just disappointing to come to a tournament which is the pinnacle of our sport and you think like the conditions are going to play really good and I’ve played anything but.

“I don’t know what it is because I have my practice table re-covered quite a lot of the time and it never, ever plays to the level of that, especially like how it just flies off the cushions.

“Whether it’s too hot in the arena, I don’t know. You probably have to speak to the table fitters. They do the best job possible they can, but something needs to happen because it’s just so inconsistent from one tournament to the next.

“I got to 11 [frames] and I played absolutely atrocious apart from probably four frames and I don’t think he played great either.

“I was not comfortable with what I was doing and obviously I let everything else get to me and stuff and the table and everything. Yeah, it was just an absolute car crash out there.”

Snooker chiefs hit back at the outburst in a WST statement which read: “There are always challenges in providing the best possible conditions for players as there are many factors which affect this.

“Our dedicated team of table fitters work tirelessly in delivering the best possible conditions and they are constantly monitoring the tables. We have systems in place where players can give feedback after every match.”

Selby was full of praise for Yize, adding: “He’s great for our game. Great to watch. Very, very attacking.

“He’s young and he’s obviously still loving the game, he’s not really got too many battle scars and he’s just enjoying it and having a great, great career so far and good luck to the boy.

“I like him. I really like him. He’s a nice lad. So I wish him all the best. For sure. I think he’ll be a world champion in the making. I mean, who knows? It could be this year.

“But, if it’s not this year, I do think in his career, he’ll probably win it at some stage. I think he’s that good a player.

“Like I say, I don’t feel like he played great in that match at all, but we’ve seen in this season and last season, some of the standard he plays to, when he does go on a bit of a run, he’s hard to stop.”

Craig Swan is covering the 2026 World Snooker Championship from the Crucible for the Daily Record