Snooker is not boring; do you hear me? Sometimes, spectacular things happen in snooker, and I'm not thinking about streakers or the like.

A short piece of music.

Following my post on billiards the other day, I wanted to share some weird situations from snooker. Snooker, on a professional level, is played in a formal setting. The players are expected to be gentlemen, and sportsmanship is key. Still, from time to time, events occur that show the players for who they really are: normal people, having a good time.

I realize that the following videos are for specially interested, but I will explain what is happening below each video, so that even a person unfamiliar with snooker can get some laughs out of it. I've also ranged them in increasing complexity, so the first one is just silly, while the last one shows an unexpected loop-hole in the rules.

Feel free to read the explanation before, during or after watching the video, depending on your understanding of the sport. The music that should soon be finished playing (if you ever started it) is the BBC Snooker theme musicBBC Snooker.

This one does not need an explanation really. Referee Jan Varhasse takes out a moth that was annoying O'Sullivan.

When there is a chance of the player making a foul, the referee has to know how the balls where positioned before the player takes the shot. In this clip, Selby has nominated the yellow, but he is unsure if he will hit the closest red. He notices that the referee is hanging over his shoulder and casually asks him if he wants to take the shot instead.

Michaela Tabb (the referee) is busy telling someone to lower the sound in their earpiece. Maguire pots the green, and Tabb is suppose to place the green back at its spot. Because she is distracted she picks up the white and walks down towards the end of the table. Her reaction is priceless.

A single hair or some chalk can affect the impact between two balls. Beacuse of this you will often see a player ask the referee to clean the cue ball. More rarely they are asked to clean a red or colored ball. In this clip, Alan Chamberlain (referee) simply refuses to clean a red ball when Selby asks for it.

After potting a colored ball, the referee is expected to quickly replace the ball at its spot. In this clip, referee Jan Verhass forgets to replace the black.

Graeme Dott is unlucky and after his shot the cue ball is headed straight for the pocket. Potting the cue ball is a foul, and in frustration he knocks the ball back on the table. Selby comes to the table, believing that the cue ball went in, and Dott placed it back on the table. If the cue ball is pocketed, the player can place it inside the white half-circle. But the cue ball was never pocketed, and when Selby picks up the cue ball to place it, the referee calls another foul. Controversial.

This last one is quite difficult, so bear with me. O'Sullivan is at the table, potting a red. After the red he must hit a colored, but he can't see any colored balls. He nominates the brown, meaning he will try to hit the brown ball. When he misses, the referee calls a miss, meaning that the other player, Higgins in this case, can say that O'Sullivan must play again from the position. So each time O'Sullivan misses Higgins will make the referee replace the cue ball behind the red, and O'Sullivan will have to try to hit a colored ball again.

After six failed attempts, O'Sullivan unfortunately (or intentionally) touches one of the red balls with his hand when cuing over. This is a foul, and the referee says 'foul', and not a miss. Higgins does not want to shoot from that position, and says that O'Sullivan will have to take the shot again. But since the referee called a foul, and not a miss, O'Sullivan can not be replaced, and Higgins have to take the shot himself. By committing a foul, O'Sullivan avoided further misses, leaving Higgins with an awkward shot from a touching ball.

Did you see any similarities between these videos? Its always the referee! The uncertainties of snooker comes from the referees. That is my conclusion.