‘Does the job’ – Neil Robertson cue repair job requires sandpaper and fire in English Open quarter-final

Neil Robertson was forced to get ‘the trusty sandpaper out’ AND a lighter as he attempted to repair a broken cue during his English Open quarter final against Mark Williams.

The Australian was in imperious form as he booked his place in the final four, making a break of 73 in the opening frame before a 97 in the second on his way to a 5-3 win.

However, after missing a red with the rest at the end of the frame, Robertson seemed concerned with the tip of his cue, drawing the attention of referee Rob Spence.

Before the next frame began, Robertson was seen tending to his errant cue with sandpaper.

“He showed Rob Spencer the tip,” observed Neal Foulds in the Eurosport studio. “A little bit of repair work going on”.

“A bit of a flaky edge of the tip or something.

“He did ask for permission to leave the arena to get that sorted out – he’s got the old sandpaper out.

“Trusty sandpaper. Always does the job”.

“I thought the tip might have come away from the cue,” added Jimmy White. “Then that is a problem and you need the trusty superglue out!”

“Seems the job is all done. The sandpaper has come out of the shed and gone back into the cue case.”

Robertson continued to have issues following the sixth frame at 4-2 up and was seen tending to the tip of his cue with a lighter.

“I think the tip is just fraying a bit ” added White. “If you do get the sandpaper down you sometimes damage the tip so he’s just burning it off”.

“I’ve seen people set fire to their tip for different reasons,” joked Foulds.

Explaining afterwards, Robertson said: “It was just a little fibre at the side of the tip.

“Sometimes, if you try and get rid of it with sandpaper, it can make it worse and you can rough up the tip too much, so this (the lighter) was just to shrivel up the fibre on the side of the tip.

“It was quite handy someone had a lighter in the crowd”.

It was a remarkable match between two of the game’s best players that included Williams becoming the oldest player to make a 147.

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