Top snooker players and pundits have expressed their disappointment after live coverage of the World Seniors Championship final was pulled off the BBC Red Button during its exciting final frame decider.

Jimmy White and Ken Doherty were level pegged at 4-4 and playing the final frame of the World Seniors final when excited viewers were told coverage on the BBC Red Button would be stopped to show golf highlights instead.

World Seniors Snooker tweeted just minutes before 10pm: “Unfortunately live coverage on the BBC Red Button will be pulled at 10pm. Please go to either the BBC Sport website or iPlayer to watch the deciding frame.”

The decision to pull live coverage was also announced by commentator Dennis Taylor, which led to outrage from snooker fans on social media.

It meant viewers had to disrupt their enjoyment of the final by re-streaming it on the BBC iPlayer or by visiting the BBC Sport website – but for some fans this may have not been possible.

One player who was not afraid to express his frustration was former world champion Shaun Murphy.

He tweeted: “How can you leave “live sport”, no matter what it is, in favour of showing recorded highlights of something that’s already happened? Don’t get it…”

Snooker pundit Neal Foulds, who works for Eurosport and ITV Sport, said on Twitter: “Red button coverage going over to the golf at 10pm with the snooker 4-4 in the #WorldSeniorsChampionship just before the decider. Par for the course. No pun intended.”

Even former England cricketer Jack Russell took to Twitter to express his disappointment. He said: “Who’s running the red button @bbc I thought the channel was for the public?

“Why would you stop @WeAreWST #worldseniors to iplayer half way through final frame decider for golf when it wasn’t even live golf? I know lot of people who don’t have computer who rely on red button.”

Fans were also left annoyed.

Mary Flynn tweeted: “Shocking stopping coverage before a final frame decider to show recorded golf!”

Tim O’Shea said: “You do realise that you can play highlights of something whenever you like? Turning off a live snooker final to show golf highlights is a strange strange choice.”

And Andrew Vernon said: “Great to have this covered on the BBC, but imagine covering an event and then cutting the climax of the final for many in favour of a highlights show. Someone in your organisation made that decision last night, and there is no other side to the story – it was 100% wrong.”

In response a BBC spokesperson said: “With a busy sporting schedule across all platforms, we had to move away from the snooker on Red Button to honour our commitment to showing the Women’s Open Golf.

“The audience were told that World Seniors Snooker would still be available to follow live on BBC IPlayer, the BBC Sport Website and on Smart TVs.”

What did you make of it? Were you left frustrated by this?