Players cue up for pot at each other

Snooker stars Quinten Hann and Mark King will swap cues for boxing gloves to settle their long-standing feud in the ring at York Hall, Bethnal Green, on June 11.

The bad feeling which spilled over from last month’s Embassy World Championships in Sheffield is now set to blow up again at British boxing’s most famous small hall.

The fall-out has simmered since Hann’s 10-4 defeat by Devon’s Andy Hick in the first round at The Crucible when referee Lawrie Annandale intervened to prevent the players coming to blows as they squared up on live television.

Now King, who has a history of disagreements with Hann, has stepped in on behalf of his friend, telling the Australian: “Pick on someone your own size.”

Both insist the grudge match is for real and have linked up with amateur boxing clubs to train for the showdown on an official Amateur Boxing Association-sanctioned show next month.

The showdown, titled ‘Pot Whack’, will be over three two-minute rounds – the maximum allowed for novice boxers-with ABA judges scoring.

Hann, 26, is preparing at Dagenham ADC while 30-year-old King is training at the Monteagle Boxing Club under the watchful eye of Jason Rowland, the former WBU world light-welterweight champion.

“I’ve played Mark twice in snooker tournaments and beaten him both times. I intend to complete the hat-trick and this will be the sweetest victory of all,” said Hann.

King hit back: “I’m looking forward to it. He might have beaten me on the snooker table but this is a different ball game.

“We’ve never seen eye-to-eye and it will stay that way whatever happens. He knows I can’t stand him and he feels the same way about me.”