Orange dye was thrown onto the table as the protester disrupted the event.
A Just Stop Oil protester forced play to stop at the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield by jumping on the table and spraying it with orange dye on Monday evening.
The evening match between Robert Milkins and Joe Perry was interrupted early on as a man ran from the crowd to enforce a protest.
I’m lost for words pic.twitter.com/Gqf5bKXlUu
— Out Of Context Snooker (@OOCSnooker) April 17, 2023
Play was immediately suspended as the table was cleared of powder by vacuum cleaners, with help from event host Rob Walker.
The table was covered and will be re-clothed overnight. Organisers later announced the Milkins v Perry match would not resume on Monday evening.
A second protester was prevented from interrupting a match between Mark Allen and Fan Zhengyi on table two by referee Olivier Marteel. The match resumed after about 45 minutes as the protester was unable to cover the table in dye.
Don’t mess with Olivier Marteel 👊🏻pic.twitter.com/EUewRt5J86
— Live Snooker (@Livesnooker) April 17, 2023
Just Stop Oil responded to the incident on Twitter by saying: “They are demanding that the Government immediately stop all new UK fossil fuel projects and are calling on UK sporting institutions to step into in civil resistance against the Government’s genocidal policies.”
🎱 NEW OIL AND GAS WILL SNOOKER US
🦺 At around 7:20pm, two Just Stop Oil supporters have disrupted the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, interrupting play. The pair proceeded to cover the tables in orange powder paint before being removed by… pic.twitter.com/xWJXjW82jf
— Just Stop Oil (@JustStop_Oil) April 17, 2023
Former world champion Stephen Hendry, who was commentating for BBC, said: “I have never seen that before at a snooker event. It’s a first.
“It is scary. Wow! You just hope the cloth can be recovered from that. It caught us all by surprise and then this happens.”
Similar scenes occurred in Aintree over the weekend as animal rights protesters disrupted the Grand National event by 15 minutes after entering the racecourse.
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