FERGAL O’BRIEN HAS qualified for the World Snooker Championships for the first time since 2010, but that was only a minor detail on a frankly unprecedented night at Ponds Forge.
Dublin’s O’Brien trailed David Gilbert 6-3 at the start of play this evening, with the first man to 10 booking their place in the main draw when action begins at the Crucible Theatre on Saturday.
Level at 9-9, the match went to a final frame decider, and that’s where things took a turn for the epic.
The final frame was unofficially timed at 1:59:40, a full 19 minutes longer than the previous record for the longest frame of snooker ever played.
“When I looked at the clock and it said 10 minutes after an hour and a half, I said the clock’s not even working at this stage,” an exhausted O’Brien said afterwards.
“It’s seven years, six times I lost this match (the final qualifier), so it would have been heartbreaking to lose again.”
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