World Snooker Championship referee Marcel Eckardt confronted a fan and asked them to leave during Saturday’s semi-final between Jak Jones and Stuart Bingham. Eckardt accused the spectator of coughing while the players lined up their shots.

The incident occurred in the 29th frame, with viewers on BBC initially confused as to why play had been halted. Bingham was lining up a crucial shot and Eckardt has now apologised for the timing of his argument with the fan.

Eckardt was seen walking over to a section of the Crucible crowd and asking: "Are you alright, sir? One more sound and I will ask you to leave."

It became apparent that the individual was claiming that they had done nothing wrong. Eckardt was then heard saying: "Who was it who made the sound then?"

The snooker official has now conceded that the timing of his intervention was “not great”. He wished to clear up confusion over why the match was halted at such a crucial time for Bingham.

Eckardt wrote on X: "To clear things up: I witnessed misbehaviour on multiple occasions coming from a specific area in the crowd during the last frame which in the end forced a player to miss a crucial shot.

"I do realise that the timing wasn’t great, but I felt that I had to say something. It took too long and it was [over the top] considering the circumstances. I do apologise to everyone who didn’t understand what was going on. Lesson learnt."

Losing semi-finalist Bingham did not blame the coughing for his exit. Instead, he criticised his own performance and lamented his inability to build on his match-winning display in the quarter-final against Ronnie O’Sullivan.

The 47-year-old said: "I must have given eight frames away. I must have missed eight or nine blacks off the spot. I'm very disappointed, after playing like I did against Ronnie. I just didn't enjoy it out there.

"Too many mistakes. Even going back to the fourth frame, missing a blue, it summed up the match really. Missing too many easy balls, gave him too many easy starts - just an embarrassing performance on my part."