Shaun Murphy flies off the handle and demands answers as World Snooker launch inquest

A furious Shaun Murphy has called for answers from snooker's Lightgate inquiry. The former world champion has also taken another dig at his outspoken heckler, warning him that the Crucible is not a football ground.

Murphy starts his World Championship last-16 clash today against Chinese sensation Xiao Guodong. Yet bizarre scenes during his first-round victory over Fan Zhengyi continue to dominate the conversation.

Murphy was angered on Tuesday evening after being caught out by an unexpected flash of light.

With the match between Judd Trump and Gary Wilson having ended on the adjacent table, the lights were switched off, and the partition raised, allowing the entire arena to witness the tense conclusion to the Magician's match.

However, as he lined up a crucial shot with the game poised at 8-8, Murphy was thrown off guardas the lights from the neighbouring table suddenly came back on mid-stroke.

"I hope to find out because that should never happen. I've never seen the light come on a table here, just phantom. World Snooker are having an inquest, somebody might not be employed tomorrow."

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The 2005 champion immediately confronted officials backstage following the frame and, despite returning to clinch the match 10-9, his fury remained afterwards.

Murphy said: "We don't ask for much as snooker players. Leave the lights off, is one of them. It affected the shot, it affected the match. That was poor.

"I think World Snooker are having a bit of an inquest into how that happened because that shouldn't happen.

"I was on the blue and it really put me off because, as I was about to strike, the lights came on. I didn't hit that ball as I intended.

"I meant to hit it a bit harder and it made me stop on it. Maybe if I'd hit the ball as I meant to I'd have been on a red better and the break might have carried on.

"I was lucky the blue went in because literally, as I was about to hit the ball, I could see the reflection of the light come on the blue and it totally took my eye off, I was lucky the blue went in, but it really altered the way I was going to hit the ball.

"I didn't get the pace in it I wanted, it affected the result of the shot. That was a new one. I've been coming here for a long time now and I've never had that happen before. It could hardly have happened at a more important moment."

When asked how he would have felt had he gone on to lose the match, he added: "I would have been very upset, absolutely. I came off the table straight after that frame and happened to see the tournament director in the corridor.

"I said: Regardless of whether I win or lose, I think we need to look into what's happened here. I think I won that frame to go 9-8 ahead.

"That shouldn't happen. These are basics, but weird things happen at the Crucible. It's only a few years since we had a pigeon in here."

Murphy, meanwhile, took another swipe at the spectator who had been vocal during the opening session of his Zhengyi victory. He took to social media during the interval to hit out at a spectator saying "s**t shot" at him, before elaborating further once the match had concluded, pulling no punches in his assessment.

Murphy said: "I've got no idea where they were, I think they were sat on the front row.

"I played a blue in and out of baulk, as it came round I clipped the green, came off the cushion, cannoned into the reds. It was pretty much the shot I played, it was actually quite a good shot, I've definitely played worse shots.

"Then literally as the applause died down, he went "shit shot." It's unlike me, I would normally confront somebody like that because we're not football, you don't behave like that at the Crucible.

"As I got down to play the next red, I was still thinking: Jeez, maybe they've had a bit too much hospitality, they might have been enjoying the beer a bit too much.

"And before I knew it I'd missed the red. It was a lesson, I suppose, that if you're disturbed, start again."