On his way to the final of the Northern Ireland Trophy, which he lost 6–9 to Ding Junhui, he defeated semi–final opponent Dominic Dale 6–0, in only 53 minutes—a record for a best-of-11-frames match. O'Sullivan then reached the quarter-finals of the Grand Prix, but lost 1–5 against eventual champion Neil Robertson. In December 2006, in his quarter-final match of the UK Championship against Hendry, O'Sullivan conceded in dramatic fashion part-way into the sixth frame of the best-of-17 match. He had gone 0–4 down after a strong start from Hendry, before finally taking a frame back. At the beginning of the sixth frame, O'Sullivan opened with a break of 24, before leaving himself a difficult shot from black to red. After missing the red, he calmly shook the hand of both Hendry (saying to him that he had "had enough of it, mate") and the match referee, Jan Verhaas, and walked out of the arena, stunning everyone present. The incident caused minor disruption to the other quarter-final match, between Graeme Dott and Steve Davis, being played simultaneously in the same arena. Dott later said that he initially thought that O'Sullivan and Hendry were having a fight when he heard an audience member shout "Get a grip, Ronnie." It was later officially confirmed that O'Sullivan had forfeited the match, which was awarded 9–1 to Hendry. O’Sullivan issued a statement later that day, apologising and saying that he would be "back on his feet fighting stronger and harder than ever very soon." On 31 May 2007, World Snooker fined him a total of £20,800 over this incident, and docked 900 ranking points from him.