Experienced referee Jan Verhaas had a moment to forget during Ronnie O'Sullivan's match against Pang Junxu at the World Snooker Championship. The bizarre incident took place in Sunday's afternoon session, with the Rocket enjoying a 10-4 lead over his Chinese rival. He got off to a strong start, making a couple of century breaks to extend his advantage from the previous day.

In the early stages of the 15th frame, Pang was at the table and found some joy with many of the reds scattered across the baize. At one point, he nailed the pink into the right middle pocket but was forced to wait for his next shot following a mistake from Verhaas. He respotted the pink in the wrong place, seemingly confused by another light-coloured dot on the table.

Verhaas failed to immediately spot the error but Pang was on hand to alert him to his glaring mistake. The referee promptly approached the table, picked up the pink and laid it down in the correct position, prompting a chuckle from the Crucible crowd.

BBC commentator John Virgo was left baffled by the incident, saying: "What happened there? We can see him getting the pink out and he saw a dot somewhere, but it wasn't the pink spot."

Fellow analyst Stephen Hendry added: "He doesn't want to see that again." Virgo replied: "I'll remind him of it tomorrow. That's why I always say, take your hat off to the referees.

"The players, when they're not at the table, they go and sit down. Referees need 100 per cent concentration all the time. They don't have any breaks."

Verhaas is one of the best-known referees at the World Snooker Championship and was the first Dutchman to officiate the final in 2003. His most recent appearance at snooker's most prestigious match was in 2017, when Mark Selby defeated John Higgins.

The 58-year-old has occasionally made the odd mistake over the course of his esteemed career. In 2012, he interrupted Grame Dott in the middle of a break to correct the score, only to realise that he was wrong and that the score was indeed accurate.

After apologising to Dott, the Scottish player then missed his next shot and went on to lose the frame and the match.

During the Masters in 2022, Verhaas mistakenly placed the green ball in the wrong position while Higgins was at the table. He quickly noticed the error and respotted the ball in the correct place, nodding to Higgins in acknowledgement of his mistake.