Jimmy White confrontation with referee Ben Williams - Northern Ireland Open 2022

Jimmy White has an argument with snooker referee Ben Collier then is issued a warning

[straightouttacornwall]

"I'm funny how? I mean, funny like I'm a clown? I amuse you? I make you laugh? What the fck is soo funny about me?"

[bullyb]

If only jimmy took it this serious in the 90s

[catweasle]

Gee, asking 2 players opinions and one hates ref's and is a good mate of Jimmy's. I wonder who they are going to side with?

[peterelliott]

Why the fuck should a player be called Sir from the referee?

[lewweb]

Sorry but players make jokes handing refs cues when miss is called or they know there’s a difficult replacement of balls etc so nothing wrong with ref making a chuckle out of an error, jimmy should have ignored it if he didn’t want to joke along. The ref is a person not a robot

[Manic]

Sorry, but Jimmy was the first to make a comment - which is clearer in other recordings - where he mutters a little under his breath for the ref to "turn it up", as a jibe that he needs a hearing aid. The ref decently took it in jest, hence the laugh. The ref could just as easily have taken Jimmy's comment as a personal insult, but chose not to.

[ddck]

The ref screwed up. Jimmy said, “turn it up!” Ref laughed at what he thought was a joke, at his own expense. Jimmy then escalated things. Jimmy initiated the back-and-forth in a non-professional way, which allowed the ref to take down his guard, and engage personally (i.e. chuckle). Jimmy then was out-of-line. A warning is NBD if you intend to act professionally for the rest of the frame anyway.

[TeddyBears.]

People say there is no fun in snooker but when the ref has a laugh Jimmy spits the dummy out, Jimmy was out of order.

[gottee]

Jimmy should have been this serious at his peak not now he's finished 'time to stop giving him wild cards

[egroegartfart]

I wonder if the ref thought he stuck his middle finger up? I mean why would you give someone a warning for throwing their hand up in the air? That makes no sense. He went from almost belly laughing to literally hyper serious ticked off giving jimmy a warning. That is completely on the ref. That wasn't a rude gesture at all. When someone throws their hands up in the air it means they maybe don't understand something and they are upset about it.

[jasonantigua]

I can’t believe they are defending him!

[lanternman]

Ben Williams isn't obviously not the brightest candle on the cake and the ones who justify this inappropriate behavior as well. The referee behaved very unprofessionally. That should also have consequences. A period of suspension could also allow Ben Williams to reflect on his wrongdoing

[Barberdon]

I personally think Jimmy went about it in the wrong way.

[Zorro]

If Jimmy was this serious, he would of won a world championship 😂

[juliansalmon]

Imagine calling quintin han or Stephen Lee Sir 😆 🤣 😂 yeah right !

[pjchj]

NO!!!! this referee is laughing all the time and other player never mind, he laughing when he slap bees on the table, he laughing when ronnie ask him about some rule I remember. He just funny guy

Jimmy is rude no debate!!! Jimmy is toxic

[christopheranderson]

Referee made a mistake, tried to make light of it, got called out on it and took offence. Human nature took over and he wanted to retaliate, instead of owning up to and apologising for his mistake. You can even see Jimmy White make the gesture with his index finger. Nothing obscene about that.
Referees make a lot of mistakes these days, mistakes that really should not be getting made. They've also got that bit too much power and seem to enjoy wielding it. It's about the game and players, not them.

[scottmclennan]

Ref wouldn’t have tried it on with Ronnie.

[thefella]

We need VAR in snooker now to see if the middle finger is given.

[nickholland]

Before anything else happened (before the laugh) Jimmy called the ref a dimlow

Utterly unacceptable regardless of whether the ref should have called a colour or not.

If you insult the ref (in front of a crowd and the cameras which makes it even more puzzling) then you should get a warning.

Interesting that neither Alan nor Ronnie mentioned the verbal insult that made the ref laugh (rather than giving a direct warning which was actually a real bit of kindness).

That just got glossed over in favour of the “Jimmy was just In the zone” story.