Jimmy White, 62, bizarrely walks out of snooker match leaving referee and opponent confused

Snooker legend sparked confusion by bizarrely walking out midway through his Northern Ireland Open match.

White, 62, was facing Martin O'Donnell for a place in the last 16, having Hossein Vafaei earlier this week. 'The Whirlwind' is bidding to earn another two-year wildcard to stay on the professional tour, 43 years after winning an invitational event in Belfast when he was just 20.

But White suffered defeat during his third-round match against O'Donnell in rather unusual fashion. With the score poised at 2-2 in the race to four, the 62-year-old agonisingly missed a red and left it hanging over the bottom left-hand corner.

That gave O'Donnell a simple chance to move ahead for the first time and he took it. White, who was visibly frustrated, abruptly walked out of the arena and conceded the frame.

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Both the referee and O'Donnell were caught off-guard, as the fifth frame was awarded to the Englishman. White did return for the sixth frame couldn't stop O'Donnell from sealing an impressive comeback win, booking a last-16-tie with No. 27 Pang Junxu.

"Any win against Jimmy is a good win, he's such a legend of the game and an inspiration for a lot of players," O'Donnell told post-victory. "To still be doing what he's doing at his age and still enjoying practising and competing, it's very inspirational."

White's walkout wasn't the first time that he'd been involved in a bizarre incident during this year's Northern Ireland Open. Against Vafaei, the Iranian was controversially penalised after the referee determined that he'd placed the white outside of the D towards the end of the sixth frame.

White took advantage and claimed a 4-2 victory. "It was bizarre, it was really ," he admitted to .

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Neal Foulds, who was on commentary for Eurosport, had remarked: "That's about a once in every five year fluke, extraordinary. It is a legal shot, in case you were wondering. I have seen that, probably in all the years, seven or eight times."

White may be in the latter stages of his career but he doesn't have plans to retire yet. "I enjoy practicing, enjoy doing exhibitions, enjoy entertaining. I still make 147s and now and again I have a little buzz where I can beat anybody. It's not as consistent as it was but I think that will come with a few wins and that was a decent win for me today."

The six-time World Championship finalist added: "I got [my card] on merit the last couple of years. did say to me, what I've done for the game, as long as I keep playing in all of the events then I'll keep getting the wildcard, but it's nice to get it on merit."