Former world champion reveals telling off from snooker legend for Crucible fart

Stuart Bingham risked the ire of snooker legend Jimmy White after he broke wind during their match in his first ever year appearing at the Crucible.

Bingham made his Crucible debut way back in 2000 and got off to the perfect start, beating number one seed and defending champion Stephen Hendry 10-7 in his opening game.

It was a dream start for the qualifier who was just 23 at the time and it booked himself a meeting with another legendary figure in White in the last 16.

The Whirlwind got the better of Bingham in that game, despite the youngster making things uncomfortable for the six-times finalist, on and off the table.

Recounting memorably funny games on his The Ball Run podcast, Bingham said: ‘I remember at the Crucible, my first time after I beat Hendry I played Jimmy and I farted!

‘I think the front two rows got the whiff of it. Eirian Williams, he was reffing. I remember going back to my chair, I farted, played a shot and it was foul and a miss. I stood back to the chair and I saw Jimmy just move away from the chair.

‘He looked at me and said “was that you?” and I went “oh, I’m sorry.” Then the ref caught it and he moved to the other side. One of those silent but deadly ones!’

In more serious matters, the 2015 Crucible champion is battling to climb back up the rankings from his current spot at world number 25.

He feels that his form is there, he is just losing out to very impressive performances, including at last week’s Northern Ireland Open when he lost a brilliant contest with Shaun Murphy.

Bingham was 3-1 up in the race to four after making two centuries, before Murphy battled back to force a decider.

Ball Run made 60 in the seventh and final frame but the Magician stayed alive and pulled off a great clearance to pinch a 4-3 victory and progress, leaving Bingham feeling like it was typical of recent times.

‘It summed up my last four or five events, I’m playing really well and just getting beat by someone who played that little bit better on the day,’ he said.

‘I was at the airport and was like “I can’t believe I’m here, I played really well, I should be getting ready for my quarter-final match.” But it’s just one of those things that’s happening at the minute. Shaun’s pulled out a good clearance.

‘I’ve got to try to keep riding the wave of playing well and hopefully it will soon click for me.’

Bingham is back in action at the International Championship in Nanjing, China against Thepchaiya Un-Nooh on Monday.