In snooker, push shots and double contacts are not allowed. This particular push shot was performed by the Rocket himself Ronnie O'Sullivan and it went unnoticed by the referee.

There is a very simple formula that all referees can use to identify a double contact: Quite simply, if (A) the distance the cue travels through the white is greater than (B) the distance between the two balls then it has to be a double contact. This is because the white will always slow down when it meets the object ball and this allows the cue to catch up for a second contact. (This all happens in a split second of course.)

And because the object ball went in the hole, we can also assume that the second contact is a push, that is: The cue contacts the white at the exact moment the white contacts the object ball. If it was not a push then the ball would not have gone in the hole. The timing would have been off.

In the video, we can clearly see that A is nealy twice the value of B. This is an obvious double contact. The referee should really have spotted this because (B) the distance between the two balls is slightly more than the width of a snooker ball.. so it should be easy for the referee to check to see if the cue comes through the white any little bit. But it came through and beyond the white nearly another ball width. That's two balls widths altogether for the value of (A) the distance the cue travels through the white.

This video is for educational purposes only.

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