Protesters halt play at World Snooker Championship in Sheffield

Play at the World snooker champions was stopped yesterday by Just Stop Oil Protesters.

Two men approached the playing area last night when a match between Robert Milkins and Joe Perry was being played. One protester jumped onto the snooker table and proceeded to open a packet of orange dye which was spread around the table.

Play at Sheffield was then suspended while vacuum cleaners were brought in by staff to clean up the mess.  The two snooker players were able to continue playing their match at another table.

Another protester was stopped from disrupting the match between Mark Allen and Fan Zhengyi because of some quick thinking by referee Oliver Marteel.

Former snooker world champion Stephen Hendry was commentating on the match for the BBC. He 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.”

“For me, as a snooker player I am thinking ‘Is the table recoverable?’ We don’t know what that is on the table.”

The damaged table was said to be set for re-clothing overnight.

The Just Stop Oil‘s Twitter page said of the protest that the group were “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.”Protester

A man aged 52 and a woman aged 30 have been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and both are in custody confirmed South Yorkshire Police.