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World Snooker Championship
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World Championship 2022: China’s Yan Bingtao homing in on victory over champion Mark Selby after pigeon storms Crucible

  • Yan ahead going into final session against four-time winner Selby, after pigeon lands on table
  • But compatriot Zhao Xintong bows out, launching a comeback before losing to Stephen Maguire

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The pigeon caused a stir at the Crucible when it landed on the match table. Photo: BBC Sport
Tom Bell
These are unprecedented times. A pigeon interrupted the match between China’s Yan Bingtao and England’s Mark Selby at the snooker World Championship in Sheffield, but Yan himself was the chief disrupter as he led the reigning champion after two sessions.
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The feathered one’s entrance during the second-round clash was an unexpected first for the Crucible Theatre, which in 40-plus years as tournament venue had witnessed snooker upsets, dozing spectators, water spillages and a streaker or two but zero recorded bird sightings.

Yan was busy shaking up the status quo, too, inching 9-7 ahead in Saturday’s second session to enter the final session (overnight Hong Kong time) needing four more frames to eliminate the four-time winner.

Selby may have had nightmares about meeting Yan after a season in which his record against “the Tiger” was played three, lost three.

Yan Bingtao of China led into the final session of his match against Mark Selby in Sheffield. Photo: Xinhua
Yan Bingtao of China led into the final session of his match against Mark Selby in Sheffield. Photo: Xinhua

Yan had revealed after his first-round win over Chris Wakelin that he had just two hours’ sleep the previous night. But the 22-year-old from Shandong gave “the Jester from Leicester” cause for a restless evening on Friday, ending the opening session at 4-4 – despite being startled when the pigeon flew at him before settling on the top cushion.

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