Snooker legend Stephen Hendry has had his say on the feud between Mark Allen and Shaun Murphy.

The seven-time world champion admitted he breathed a sigh of relief at not being in the commentary box when Murphy questioned Allen's drawn out tactics during last week's UK Championship. The 2005 world champion suggested Allen was taking additional time over shots in a deliberate effort to unsettle Barry Hawkins, who still won the match before losing to Judd Trump in the tournament's final.

Hendry offered some sympathetic reasoning for Allen's style but was not complimentary of how the sport had developed. The 55-year-old Scot described such actions as a difficult watch and noted Allen was one of a number of players who were not 'fun' to observe.

He said: "I dodged the biggest bullet in the world, I got the night off. It was absolutely unbelievable.

"I was sat in a restaurant, I'd just poured my first glass of red wine and I'd seen the first frame was 55 minutes and I did have a little chuckle to myself, I will admit."

"Going back to Mark, he came in at the beginning of the week after his first match, was really despondent about his game," Hendry added. "You can understand how you take a long time if you're not happy, obviously it's the way he's been playing for a while now.

"If he doesn't feel confident in his game, every shot becomes a pint of blood. It's a tough watch, you cant deny it, it's a tough watch.

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Mark Allen was accused of slow play against Barry Hawkins at the UK Championship (
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(Image: Getty))

"He said 'if I don't feel confident I'm going to get a pot I'm going to refuse it' and I'm like, my view is, if you take a shot on that and you get it, what a boost you're going to get. I look at it the other way, I could never refuse any pots.

"There were some matches last week, snooker wasn't fun to watch anymore. There were some hard watches. not just Mark, there were a few players."

Murphy riled Allen up with his comments while on BBC's commentary team. The former believes Allen's tactics to be more premeditated.

"Now, it's completely within the rules," he said. "But at what stage do we question whether the amount of time Mark Allen is taking over simple decisions is a tactic to annoy his opponent? I can't see any reason other than that for why he's taking so long."

Allen then blasted Murphy on social media and told him to keep his 'personal feelings' out of it. He said: "As for Shaun in comms. He’s absolutely entitled to his opinion on things but perhaps best to leave personal feelings out of the commentary box in future. All because I called out some of his recent BS."