2026 World Snooker Championship breaks record with ‘bizarre’ 100-minute frame

The record for the longest frame ever played at the World Snooker Championship was broken in a surreal semi-final between Mark Allen and Wu Yize on Friday.The 14th frame was eventually won by Wu after 1 hour and 40 minutes, eclipsing the previous record of 85 minutes set by Yan Bingtao and Mark Selby in 2022. The frame included a 55-minute stretch where no ball was potted.The World Snooker Championship is held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England, with semi-finals being best of 33 frames and held over three days. Wu, 22, raced into a 6-2 lead on Thursday, though Allen, 40, won five straight frames on Friday to take the lead.What followed was a strange set of proceedings where the black ball blocked the bottom-right corner pocket and both players played red balls as close as possible to the black without potting it in order to avoid a foul and seven points being awarded to their opponent. Eight reds ended up surrounding the black, leading to a stalemate (a red ball must be potted before attempting to pot a coloured ball), prompting sarcastic cheers and applause from a normally hushed crowd.Eight reds surrounded the black at the right