Matthew Selt RAGE QUITS mid-match at the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters as he reacts angrily to a missed shot against China’s Pang Junxu, giving up his shot at the £500,000 top prize

British snooker player Matthew Selt exited the lucrative Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters on Tuesday after rage quitting during his fourth round match against China’s Pang Junxu.

Selt – who is ranked 33rd in the world and had beaten Allan Taylor in the previous round – was down 4-3 against Pang in their best-of-nine contest.

Pang was up 10 points to one in the eighth frame but Selt was at the table and had just potted an opening red.

That pot left Selt a shot on the black but he was hampered slightly as the cue ball had landed close to a cluster of reds.

The 39-year-old was still expected to sink the black though, but it stayed in the jaws of the pocket before he reacted furiously by slapping a loose red across the table.

Selt quit a match at the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters on Tuesday after missing this black

This act meant that Selt had to forfeit the frame and therefore the match.

Selt was clearly well aware of this as he immediately turned to his opponent and offered him a handshake.

By quitting against Pang, Selt forfeited his shot at the tournament’s £500,000 top prize. The overall prize pot at this year’s Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters is just over £2.3million.

Selt’s bizarre defeat by Pang came just two days after the Essex-born player had revealed that his cue had been damaged while travelling to Riyadh.

‘It snapped in two,’ Selt explained on the eve of the tournament. ‘I had some cues sent from back home and one from Thailand but I found a local carpenter here who has filed some of the wood away and used some extremely strong adhesive to put it back together, so I’m going to use it.

After missing the shot, Selt angrily slapped a red ball down the table, conceding the frame

‘I played with it for a few hours earlier. It looks terrible, but the balls are going in the direction they were going in before it broke.

‘Hopefully that will keep happening and it won’t break during the game. He’s done a very good job in terms of keeping me going until I can get it to Thailand after here and get it completely rebuilt.’

Pang will now face former world champion Luca Brecel in the round of 32.