Hicks wins bad-tempered match

ANDY HICKS had to be separated from Quinten Hann when their Embassy World Championship clash came close to ending in a punch-up at the Crucible.

Amid extraordinary scenes, referee Lawrie Annandale had to stand between the players after an acrimonious exchange of words that followed Hicks’s 10-4 victory.

Controversial Australian Hann had already been warned for swearing and boiled over when Hicks shook his hand and suggested the defeat would relegate him from the game’s elite top 16.