Match Fixing Scandal Rocks Snooking World

Match fixing has become something of a reputation destroyer in recent years. Many sports, the most recent being tennis, have become engulfed within investigations of irregular betting patterns and suspect events that could be judged to back up these irregular patterns.

Now it seems the sport of snooker is under fire with a first match fix claim being made about a Round One match within the annual UK championships. Of all sports, the slow-paced, calm, and collected sport of snooker would be the least expected to produce such a news story.

Aside from World No. 1 Ronnie O’Sullivan’s occasional bipolar personality and the odd bad tempered player Snooker is a sport that garners a solid reputation of good sportsmanship and producing a clutch of professional role models.

The evidence regarding the alleged match fix, it has to be said is worryingly damming. Two players not widely known outside of the snooker world, Jamie Burnett and high ranked opponent Stephen Maguire began their first round clash under the optimistic eyes of the on looking crowd.  

However, alarm bells were rung before the match had even started, as a leading bookmakers confirmed to snookers world organisation, the WPBSA that they had ceased betting on the first round meeting as an unusual number of bets came through for this specific match with an even more specific score line of 9-3 in Maguire’s favour.

Sensible as the WPBSA were, they kept a watchful eye on the action on the green surfaces of the table as Maguire raced into a 8-3 lead. And then in frame 12 his inexperienced challenger Jamie Burnett had a perfect chance to bring it back to 8-4 and keep himself in with a slim chance of progressing to round two.

Then came moment of sporting history that will provide the element of action expected to be scrutinised by anyone interested in uncovering the exact truth of the saga. Jamie Burnett mis-hit a black which would have taken the match to 8-4, leaving Maguire to cruise to a 9-3 victory.

Of course almost instantaneously doubts began to emerge of the score lines validity. Here was a player, inexperienced as he may be missing a black that allowed suspect gamblers to pick up winnings for a final score line that although not impossible to presume, was all the same coincidental to the extreme.

Both players within the match denied any wrong doing, with Maguire putting it down to the inexperienced nerves of his opponent. Indeed many voices within the sport were quick to squash any rumours of any wrong doing.

For snooker itself is a sport of sophisticated solace. It is a sport that gains little attention at best, but receives a reputation of high esteem.

So let’s just hope this is not the obvious attempt at making the quick buck, but rather one great enormous coincidence deemed to be a lost memory in years to come.