Crazy fouls, flukes and 'outrageous poor luck': How 'extraordinary' UK Championship quarter-final between Neil Robertson, Pang Junxu played out

While much of the focus in Friday's UK Championship quarter-finals was on world No. 1 Judd Trump and his tie against Ding Junhui, oohs and ahhs were coming from those in the York Barbican watching Table 2, as Neil Robertson and Pang Junxu played out an utterly unbelievable match, with one particular frame labelled "outrageous, extraordinary and bizarre" by TNT Sports' commentators.

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An "extraordinary" and utterly "bizarre" frame left TNT Sports commentators Phil Studd and Neal Foulds stunned during Friday's UK Championship quarter-finals.

World No. 1 Judd Trump's tantalising clash against Ding Junhui took top billing on Table 1 at York Barbican, but those sat watching Table 2 ended up being treated to quite remarkable scenes as Neil Robertson eventually beat Pang Junxu 6-4, in a match which featured just about everything.

The afternoon began just as underdog Pang would have hoped, building a tidy 70-9 lead to take the opening frame. Robertson, though, would fight back to take a 2-1 lead - Pang scoring just one point between the two frames, in the relatively low-key early stages.

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However, the fourth frame absolutely exploded into chaos, all kick-started by a moment of immense misfortune for Pang in his maiden Triple Crown quarter-final.

At 42-26 ahead, Pang's hopes of levelling the match looked to have been given a boost, when he clipped a quite sumptuous mid-table red into the left pocket.

But nobody could quite foresee the punishing run of the cue ball - which somehow bounced off the top cushion, striking the black off its spot, and sending it trickling into the right middle - and leaving Robertson with a free ball to attack.

In a tournament where tight pockets have been a regular narrative, the misfortune of Pang's blunder was not lost on TNT Sports' commentary team.

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"It’s desperate luck," Foulds remarked. "That is unlucky as you’ll see. He's left a free ball, you could be there all your life and not be able to recreate that shot. A very, very unusual set of circumstances."

Just minutes later, there was more carnage, as Robertson teed up his opponent for an awkward, yet far from impossible task of reaching a red along the left, separated from the cue ball by the pink and yellow.

His first of an eventual three attempts was the catalyst for a lengthy stoppage, as he clattered "everything but the red" - with the balls needing to be replaced, to the dismay of Studd in the commentary box.

"Oh my goodness, he’s hit everything but the red!" Foulds said. "I hope this is not going to be put back.

"Everything moved, the pink, the yellow and the red. Oh dear, I don’t know how long this is going to take.

"The pink is on its spot, that's some news that's not dreadful. I just don't know how you'd ever recreate this shot.

"He's obviously tried to hit the topside of the red through the gap between pink and yellow. Even if you get it right, it could always be half a millimetre out. It's fractions, isn't it?"

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Pang switched up his method to instead play off the cushion, a strategy which again fell short as he smashed into the yellow - but this time, Studd was left confused as to how Pang had got it so wrong.

"Oh goodness," Foulds said. "What is going on here? It's a bizarre frame. What he's tried there, to hit the red off the cushion, it's not difficult.

"Extraordinary what's happening here really in this frame. The last two shots from Pang Junxu, he's completely misunderstood them. Misjudged them completely."

Then, on the third attempt, came a slice of fortune which paid back his earlier shortcomings tenfold.

Again aiming for red off the cushion, Pang avoided the hat-trick of fouls, and quite remarkably sent the red into the middle pocket with the slightest of nicks on blue. What's more, he found position on the subsequent yellow to continue his break.

"Oh no you’re kidding, you are kidding!" Studd remarked. "Extraordinary. What a way to end that sequence of shots."

Foulds added: "It’s been an extraordinary frame. Earlier on, he had the most outrageous poor luck - knocking the black in and leaving the free ball.

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"He’s got some back here. I don’t know how he missed it the previous time, quite honestly, because it was really straightforward off the cushion. It's been a bizarre frame of snooker, all kinds of things happening."

There would be yet another foul for Pang in this frame, albeit less remarkable, as he failed to find the yellow with just colours remaining and along the baulk cushion. He could not prevent Robertson from taking the frame, as the Australian built a 5-1 lead in the afternoon session.

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Robertson looked to have clinched an emphatic victory and a relatively straightforward passage to the semi-final when he built a 72-11 lead at 5-1 up. But he afforded Pang another visit when skewing a red with the rest - teeing the Chinese cueman up for what Studd said seemed like a "hopeless cause".

With three reds remaining, Pang needed four snookers to keep his UK Championship hopes alive.

After sending down a red and a pink, Pang played for snookers by directing the cue ball back to baulk - nuzzling right behind the yellow.

Robertson's escape was a slack one, bouncing off the top and sending the black into the middle of the table, and, in the process, leaving Pang with a free ball.

"How about that," Foulds said. "We have a different game on our hands. He can win now! What an extraordinary thing to happen. He could steal this frame. This is unbelievable."

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Studd added: "Remarkable. He looked a 100/1 shot when he came back to the table. You wondered whether he could come back. We're looking at one of the steals of the season."

Indeed, Pang went on to complete a quite stunning total clearance, sending the crowd into raptures.

And it seemed for some time that the most impossible comeback could be on. Pang worked quickly to reduce Robertson's lead to 5-3 with a brilliant 115 break, and then went within a frame of parity after a more attritional battle.

But his valiant attempt would fall just short - Robertson seeing through the victory with a run of 75 to set up a semi-final meeting with Trump.

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