UK Championship 2023: Hossein Vafaei beats Shaun Murphy after fire delays play at York Barbican
- Published
Players head to the pub after fire alarm stops UK Championship snooker
UK Championship |
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Venue: Barbican Centre, York Dates: Saturday, 25 November - Sunday, 3 December |
BBC coverage: Watch live on BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Red Button and BBC iPlayer, as well as the BBC Sport website and mobile app |
Hossein Vafaei claimed a 6-4 win over Shaun Murphy in the first round of the UK Championship after their match was delayed by a fire at the York Barbican.
Iran's Vafaei made four half-centuries and a century to secure his victory against a disappointing Murphy.
The 2008 winner, who is ranked seventh in the world, struggled to find his rhythm and top scored with a 64 break.
Matthew Selt defeated fellow Englishman Ali Carter 6-3 in Sunday evening's other match and will face Vafaei next.
Like Vafaei, Selt came through qualifying to reach this stage of the competition and settled into his contest with Carter with two superb breaks of 111 and 102 to head into the interval level at 2-2.
The players then traded frames but Selt took a hard-fought seventh frame and reeled off the next two to advance.
Both matches had been scheduled to start at 19:00 GMT but were pushed back an hour after fire crews were called to put out a small blaze in the reception area of the building.
"I was in the practice room when the guy came in screaming saying we needed to evacuate," Selt told BBC Sport.
"We were all still pretty chilled but hopefully we don't have to go through that again.
"We got over to the pub in the warmth because it would have been not so nice to be out in the cold for 40 minutes. It was a weird evening but it turned out all right in the end [for me]."
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Shaun Murphy, the 2008 UK champion, took refuge in a local pub after the York Barbican was evacuated