The World Snooker Championship is the latest high-profile sporting event to be disrupted by protesters after a Just Stop Oil activist poured a packet of orange powder paint over a table on Monday evening, forcing a 24-hour suspension in the match between Robert Milkins and Joe Perry.
Milkins was 11-0 up in the early stages of the opening frame when a man suddenly ran out of the crowd, jumped on to the table and began emptying the powder. It took 12 seconds for two security guards to get down the stairs of the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, and bundle the activist away, but the damage had long been done.
Play was suspended on both tables immediately after the incident as vacuum cleaners were brought into the arena - with the master of ceremonies, Rob Walker, among those helping to sweep up the mess.
“They are demanding that the Government immediately stop all new UK fossil fuel projects and are calling on UK sporting institutions to step into civil resistance against the Government’s genocidal policies.”
