Filed under: Other Sports, Snooker
Maybe it's the involvement of that well-known fight promoter Barry Hearn, but it seems snooker is trying to out-muscle boxing in honing the art of the grudge match.How else to explain Mark Allen's frank assessment of Stuart Bingham, his quarter-final opponent in the Australian Goldfields Open: "We don't get on. It would be nice to send him back to where he belongs."
Er, so that's Essex then, Mark. Yes, let's try to send him back to Essex. That's surely punishment enough for anyone. It didn't work, Bingham earned a full-deserved 5-3 victory to progress to the last four.
Allen added: "He doesn't like me because I told the truth in a press conference that he has no bottle, no balls, and as he threw away a match against Ding Junhui at the World Championship after leading 12-9 I think that showed.
"It was great he did because that let the legend that is Stephen Hendry stay in the top 16 and I would rather see Hendry in the top 16 than Bingham." Ouch.
Not that snookering feuds are a particularly new occurrence. Think this is a sedate sport played out amongst overly-pally rivals who all retire to the bar for a friendly tipple after battle is done? Think again.
The pair in this latest spat have a little way to go to match the death threat issued by the late, lamented Alex Higgins to compatriot Dennis Taylor two decades ago.
Then there was Stephen Lee, appalled by the level of triumphalism shown by Peter Ebdon at the end of one of their meetings, who claimed he would not play for England if his nemesis was in the same team.
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