Hazel Irvine couldn’t let the moment pass without saying sorry
Hazel Irvine was quick to apologise(Image: BBC Sport)
BBC presenter Hazel Irvine made a live on-air apology to Mark Allen during the World Championship final. It came amid Shaun Murphy’s clash with Wu Yize after the Chinese player had defeated Allen in the semi-final to secure his place in his very first Crucible final.
Things could have turned out very differently had Allen potted what would have been a match-winning black to seal a 17-15 victory. However, the shocking miss gifted the frame to Wu, who then won the decider to triumph 17-16.
The defeat means Allen’s quest to reach a maiden World Championship final continues for another year. Following a highlights package of this year’s tournament shown during the Murphy vs Wu interval, Irvine simply couldn’t bring herself to watch the missed shot all over again.
Speaking on the BBC’s coverage after a montage of the tournament’s standout moments, the Scottish presenter said: “Nicely done Steve (Bracknall) aka Chris McClure, stage name, really genius stuff there. I still cannot watch Mark Allen’s missed black, I am really sorry Mark. But the grace in which he took that was extraordinary, wasn’t it?”
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John Parrott chipped in: “Unbelievable. If you are watching pal, I am still hurting for you. I am absolutely am, I have never seen anything like it.”
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Allen was unlikely to have been watching the painful moment from home, but the Northern Irishman faced the music after the loss, admitting: “You don’t deserve to be in the world final if you’re missing balls like that
“That was just pure pressure to be honest. Normally I’m pretty good under the pressure but just didn’t handle it well today. I was probably more nervous at different stages of the match than I was on that black.
“I just threw a quick one in, I genuinely did. I just didn’t deliver the cue properly and I got what I deserved when you miss a black like that to win the match. I had two, three chances to close out the match and didn’t do it. But credit to Wu.”
He added: “The final frame was another opportunity to win. I was fine going into it – win the next frame, that’s what I always say. I was a little unlucky when I potted the pink, split the reds but didn’t land on anything.
“But I had more than enough chances to win. At the end of the match, I just wished Wu good luck and said he played very well. I think he’s going to be a world champion.”
During Monday’s afternoon session, Wu moved within five frames of becoming the second youngest world champion in history after withstanding a strong Murphy fightback. The 22-year-old looked down and out after losing the first five frames of the day as the experienced Murphy roared back from a 10-7 overnight deficit to surge into a 12-10 lead.
But Wu, who had looked a pale imitation of the ferocious potting machine who had blazed into his first world final, hit back to win the final three frames of the session and regain a slender 13-12 advantage.
