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.

“I’d love to fight him,” he said. “I’ve beaten him three times before, they were all close games and there was a bit of needle before the start.

“He shook my hand at the end and said: ‘Well, you won’t be in the top 16 next year.’ “I knew he was going to say something right from the start. He was doing subtle things like not getting out the way when I was coming to the table.

“I wasn’t happy. I said to him: ‘You’re short and bald and always will be.” Hicks had not won a match at the Crucible since appearing in the semi-finals on his debut in 1995.

Hicks faces Ronnie O’Sullivan or Stephen Maguire next.