RONNIE O’SULLIVAN broke the world record for the most 147 breaks by one person yesterday at the World Open in Glasgow, but the referee had to persuade him to complete the break.

O’Sullivan was unhappy that there was no prize for getting a maximum break and stopped on a break on 140, refusing to pot the final ball. Referee Jan Verhaas had to talk ‘The Rocket’ into potting the black and becoming the player with the most maximum breaks.

The Englishman stopped midway through the third frame of his win over Mark King and asked Verhaas what the prize was for a 147. When told there was no prize, O’Sullivan was incensed.

“I wasn’t going to pot the black because I asked and was told there was no break prize for a 147,” O’Sullivan told the BBC. “What’s the point of making a 147 if you’re only going to make £4,000?”

“But the ref played a guilt trip on me and said, ‘Come on, do it for your fans’. And I thought, ‘OK, because I haven’t got long to play anyway, so I might as well go out on a high.’ But I wasn’t going to pot it because four grand, once you’ve paid the taxes…”

O’Sullivan will now play boyhood hero Jimmy White in the fourth round.