Snooker world championship final interrupted by giant mascot as fans left perplexed | Other | Sport

Snooker fans were left baffled when the final of the Women’s World Championship was interrupted by somebody in a giant mascot costume. The event, which is being held in the Chinese city of Dongguan, came to a head on Tuesday as defending champion Bai Yulu came from behind to beat Mink Nutcharut and retain the trophy.

Bai made a sluggish start to her title defence, losing three of the opening four frames as Nutcharut took control early on. A mid-session interval took place after the fourth frame as the players headed back to their dressing rooms. An unusual interruption followed, with fans being left perplexed at what they were seeing.

As the table was being cleaned before the match got back underway, a giant mascot walked into the arena. It had the bizarre appearance of a cartoon girl with some sort of furry animal wrapped around her head.

Some fans were left confused, with @KimKristensen72 sarcastically writing on X (formerly Twitter): “Normal sport.” @myslas, meanwhile, simply added: “Nightmare mascot.”

It was not the only instance of a snooker match being interrupted in a bizarre way. Back in 2022, a pigeon landed on the table during a World Snooker Championship meeting between Mark Selby and Yan Bingtao.

Bingtao was preparing to break in the sixth frame before the clash was halted by a surprise visitor. He flinched as the pigeon swooped towards him and calmly landed on the table, with spectators heard laughing as the incident unfolded.

The bird was eventually chased away by the referee and the match was able to resume, but only after the stunned fans inside the Crucible were instructed to settle down.

A year later, the same tournament was interrupted by Just Stop Oil activists. During a match between Robert Milkins and Joe Perry, a man jumped onto the table and ripped open a packet of orange powder which spilled over the baize.

Almost simultaneously, a female protester tried to glue herself to the other table being used by Mark Allen and Fan Zhengyi. However, she was stopped from doing so by the quick thinking of referee Olivier Marteel.

Play was suspended on both tables as vacuum cleaners were hauled into the arena. It was later ruled that an overnight repair job would be needed to replace the table cloth, which had been seriously damaged.

Stephen Hendry, who was covering the match on BBC Sport, was left shocked and said: “I have never seen that before at a snooker event. It’s a first. It caught us all by surprise.”