Protesters storm World Snooker Championship to cover Crucible tables in orange powder

While one protestor was able to climb on the table being used by Robert Milkins and Joe Perry before releasing a bag of orange paint dye, the one on the other side of the partition - where Mark Allen was playing Fan Zhengyi - was hauled off by referee Olivier Marteel before they got chance to ruin it.

The protesters were then held backstage by tournament security officials until the police arrived, and although the substance was hoovered up with the help of the BBC's Rob Walker, the table will be re-clothed overnight before any match can be played on it.

Whereas the concluding session of Allen v Fan could resume around 45 minutes after the incident, the opening session of Milkins v Perry will now be played on Tuesday evening when their second session had originally been scheduled. Their concluding session will be re-arranged at a later date.

Just Stop Oil issued a statement which read: “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 security and arrested.

“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.”

Former world champion Stephen Hendry, on commentary duties for the 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.

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

It is not the first time play at the Crucible has been subject to unlikely interventions. In 2008 a streaker danced around the table prior to the start of the final session of the final between Ronnie O’Sullivan and Ali Carter.

Last year, a pigeon briefly interrupted play midway through the second-round match between Mark Selby and Yan Bingtao.

Allen and Fan were given a standing ovation upon their return to the arena, and Allen duly responded by turning a break of 24 into a 126 clearance to black as he resumed the event in style.

Having duly gone on to complete a 10-5 win, Allen said: “I’ve got to be honest, I was completely oblivious to what was going on, but fair play to Olivier and the security staff who were totally on the ball.

“It could have been a lot worse – you saw what happened on the other table and how much disruption it caused. I was quite chilled, I just waited in my dressing room and had a cup of tea.”

Asked about the methods used by the protesters, Allen added: “I don’t quite get it – I don’t know enough to have a valid opinion but I’d say there are better ways of going about it than disrupting a major sporting event.

“I feel like talking about it now is giving them airtime they don’t deserve, because it is two idiots disrupting what should have been a nice night of snooker.”

World Snooker Championship: Daily schedule & results

• (*) denotes final session of a match
• Match number refers to where it lies in the tournament bracket

MONDAY APRIL 17
Morning Session (10am)
First Round (Best of 19 frames)
TV Coverage: Eurosport & BBC

• Ding Junhui 6-10 Hossein Vafaei *
• Mark Allen 6-3 Fan Zhengyi

Afternoon Session (2.30pm)
First Round (Best of 19 frames)
TV Coverage: Eurosport & BBC

• Mark Williams 10-5 Jimmy Robertson *
• John Higgins 7-2 David Grace

Evening Session (7pm)
First Round (Best of 19 frames)
TV Coverage: Eurosport & BBC

• Robert Milkins vs Joe Perry
• Mark Allen 10-5 Fan Zhengyi *

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