Snooker fans furious as no refunds given after Ronnie O'Sullivan match ends early

Snooker fans have reacted angrily to being refused refunds for what was meant to be the fourth session of the between and Zhao Xintong. meant there was no competitive action on Saturday afternoon at the Crucible.

An exhibition featuring Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor, 40 years on from the latter’s victory in their famous ‘black-ball final’ was instead lined up to take place instead, running from 2:30pm until approximately 4pm, including a short interval.

The World Snooker Tour said its box office terms and conditions meant it was “unable to offer ticket refunds or exchanges”, news which has not gone down well with spectators expecting to see seven-time champion O’Sullivan.

Responding to the announcement on social media site X, formerly , Andy Wilson wrote: “Like both Steve and Dennis but I paid £115 for my seat yesterday.

“Endlessly rolling out the old guys isn’t an answer today. But WST do like to keep their money. Refunds can and should be made.”

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Another response, from Luigi di Falco, read: “It’s pretty much daylight robbery. Those semi-final tickets were so expensive to not offer refunds you should be ashamed.”

In a statement released to the PA news agency, the WST said: “We are putting together a fantastic exhibition this afternoon featuring all-time snooker legends.

“We realise that fans come from all over the to enjoy the Crucible experience so our intention is to provide the best possible entertainment in these circumstances.

“This is the first time in over a decade that a semi-final has finished a session early so it is a very rare occurrence and unfortunately beyond our control.”

after he declared it would be “pretty pointless” for him to continue playing snooker

“I wasn’t surprised, I’ve been playing like that a lot in practise. It’s just hard to get my head around it. I can’t even fix it, that’s the problem. I know I said I’d like to give it two years, but if I’m gonna play like it, it’s pretty pointless. It’s not good.”

O’Sullivan is now backing Zhao, whom he has previously helped to mentor, to go all the way.

“We’ve got a really nice relationship; I’m always trying to help him if I can,” O’Sullivan said of Zhao. “He wanted the crowd to give me a clap, but it’s his moment. I tried to get off as quick as I could cause it’s his moment, you know.

“It’d be amazing if he did it. He’d be a mega star, he’s still very big in China as it is. But if he becomes world champion, he’ll be unbelievable. It will just be amazing for snooker, and his life as well.

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