Ronnie O'Sullivan and the World Championship's most infamous episode of 'excessively slow' time-wasting 20 years on
Updated 04/04/2025 at 13:46 GMT+1
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From the sublime to the ridiculous, Ronnie O'Sullivan has witnessed plenty of farce alongside the fabulous during his annual trip to Sheffield for the sport's main event. As the seven-time world champion decides whether he will compete this year, he should perhaps recall the 2005 competition as a reminder that the Crucible is as much about winning at all costs than performing at peak levels.
Ronnie reveals Crucible matches he was 'gutted' to lose - and 'hell' of facing Ebdon in 2005
Video credit: TNT Sports
Ronnie O'Sullivan has seen and done it all at the Crucible.
Amid claiming seven world titles in 2001, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2020 and 2022, there have been plenty of bizarre moments to accompany the green baize brilliance since he first appeared in Sheffield as a teenager in 1993.
As the snooker GOAT decides if he will compete at the 49th World Championship later this month, he will probably remind himself that the 17-day Crucible challenge is always all about winning at all costs rather than achieving personal satisfaction.
None more so than during the 2005 World Championship, when the game's irresistible force met an immovable object, and discovered an objectionable level of play that continues to live large in the memory two decades on.
O'Sullivan, the fastest player on the circuit, had sped to an 8-2 lead over Peter Ebdon over the two-day quarter-finals on April 26-27, but somehow contrived to lose 11 of the next 14 frames against an opponent unwilling to yield in time.
The scoreline told only half the story, with Ebdon managing to win the contest despite producing the highest break of only 60 in a match in which his average shot time crawled along at 37 seconds.
Clive Everton, the late celebrated snooker journalist and broadcaster, succinctly summed matters up in The Guardian newspaper.
"In the last eight frames, Ebdon asked for the cue ball to be cleaned 30 times," he wrote.
"Excessively slow play, with the intention of unsettling an opponent, is against the rules.
"Referees are empowered to warn a player that the frame may be forfeited. Colin Brinded, the match referee, issued no such warning, but a sizable body of opinion believed he should have."
O'Sullivan was the defending world champion after lifting the second of seven Crucible titles in 2004, but the 2002 world champion Edbon was not for slipping quietly into the night as he dragged himself back into the match by deploying some of the dark arts of matchplay.
The waste of time was time well spent for Ebdon, whose victory was about starving his opponent of the oxygen of rhythm and momentum.
"I've never seen anybody play that slow," said the 1991 world champion John Parrott in analysing the turgid fare on offer.
O'Sullivan saw the funny side when he recalls the infamous contest that included a 12 break in the 19th frame that took Ebdon over five minutes and 30 seconds to compile – slower than his world record 147 break of five minutes and eight seconds in 1997.
"I think Peter holds the record for the world's slowest break. It is just fantastic. I think we should have a memorial award for him," said O'Sullivan.
"World Snooker should create an award for him titled 'The best worst slow break in the history of the game'. Ebbo would be proud of that.
"It was hard sitting through that. He kept getting the ball cleaned. And took five minutes to piece together 12 points.
"I made a 147 in around the same time it took him to make 12. You think, 'Wow, that must have been slow.'
"Every frame seemed to go like that. I was glad when it was over for me in that match."
O'Sullivan played on for snookers in the 17th frame, trailing 84-0 in a match that saw him ask a spectator the time and act like he was ready to nod off, but there was an element of gallows humour about it all.
Ebdon denied he deployed gamesmanship to alter the outcome of the contest by deliberately grinding to a halt at times.
"There was lots of pressure out there. I don't know what I was doing half the time, but I so wanted to win," he told reporters.
"I'm a different style for Ronnie, who's a genius, but I've just beaten the world champion. People can say what they like, but I don't care.
"When I'm trying my hardest, I seem to go slow. I don't do it intentionally."
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Despite widespread criticism from fans and pundits, O'Sullivan accepted Ebdon's time-wasting tactics were a legitimate part of the game.
"Peter's got to do what he's got to do," he said afterwards. "He's got a wife and four kids to feed, so I can't criticise him.
"He's there to stop me playing. That was his job. I am not out of love with snooker, but mentally it's taking its toll.
"I'll probably have a year off. I've not made a final decision yet, but I'm 90% positive."
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