RONNIE O’SULLIVAN was thanked by the referee for a classy act during his UK Championship final win over Ding Junhui.
O’Sullivan became the older player to win the prestigious tournament on the eve of his 38th birthday with a 10-7 victory on Sunday night.
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He has now won the UK Championship a record eight times.
And O’Sullivan’s triumph also came 30 years after becoming the youngest-ever victor aged just 17 in 1997.
The win saw him pocket a cool £250,000 cash prize.
But despite the riches on offer, O’Sullivan showed his integrity and class when referee Rob Spencer missed a foul in the sixth frame
O’Sullivan was trailing 21-19 after going 4-1 up on sets when he accidentally brushed a red ball with his cue.
The standard punishment would have been a foul and four points to Junhui.
But ref Spencer missed the incident entirely, leading to O’Sullivan immediately informing him of the error.
The crowd gave the Rocket a standing ovation for his honesty as Spencer thanked him.
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Speaking after the final, O’Sullivan expressed his delight at setting more records in snooker.
The legend said: “Each tournament I win these days, I get great pleasure out of it.
“I may not have played my best stuff. It shows what a strange game it is. I have to leave blood, sweat and tears out on the table.
“I always keep beating myself up because of the age stuff, at some point I think I have to stop winning, but I will keep going until the wheels fall off.
“Ding played fantastically all week. It was a pleasure to play him. A credit to China. He is the Godfather of Chinese snooker.
“I could feel a bit of sabotage coming in the afternoon. I was getting frustrated.
“I feel like I play snooker like Seve Ballesteros, in and out of the trees, it’s nuts this game sometimes. But it catches up with you. It’s quite draining.
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“I have to have resilience. It’s easy to get down on yourself and get frustrated but I have to think of the positives. You need that resilience to keep going.
“I felt like there was a burst in there somewhere, so I had to hang in there until that burst came at the end.”