Northern Ireland snooker star has taken to social media to voice his annoyance
Spare a thought for Mark Allen as for the second time in 18 months the snooker star has run into issues at an airport travelling with his cue.
In February last year after winning the Players Championship, Allen was left frustrated the following day as he returned home to Northern Ireland but his beloved cue was still in Birmingham Airport!
After some back and forth with easyjet and Swissport on social media the Antrim man was finally reunited with his cue 24 hours later.
But lightning has seemingly struck twice for Allen as he posted on ‘X’ on Tuesday morning that once again his cue has not followed him onboard his flight.
Allen let his frustration be known as he faced a four-hour wait for the arrival of his cue at the destination, but he put his time to good use inviting questions from fans to keep him busy during his extended delay.
“Thanks to some bright spark at Belfast international forgetting to put my cue on the flight I’ve to wait 4 hrs on them putting it on another flight, time for a Q&A if anyone is interested. 12-1pm. Send all your questions in and I will respond to them all,” he posted.
After the previous incident in 2024 Allen was asked why he does not take his cue onboard with him instead of putting it in the hold, but the 39-year-old said they are not allowed to bring it onto the plane.
Allen is on record saying a cue is the “single most important” thing a snooker player has, and something that can’t be precisely replicated.
“The cue is everything to me. It would take me probably four, five, six months to get used to a new cue,” he said.
“And that’s playing six or seven hours a day. Because it is wood, you can never get two cues that play the exact same.
“I have had cues made in the past from the same plank of wood, and they play completely different. So it is not like a golfer who can change to another club because it is made of steel or whatever, and they can just change because it is exactly the same.
“It is just not like that for us at all. So yeah, this is the single most important piece of equipment we could have.”
Belfast International Airport has been contacted for comment.
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