Two climate activists used the Snooker World Championships in Sheffield, UK, as a stage for their protest. The action caused game operations to be interrupted and games to be postponed. First, a man jumped on one of the two pool tables at the Crucible Theater on Monday night. From a bag he spread an orange powdery substance on the table. The match between Robert Milkins and Joe Perry had begun there on the third evening of the tournament.
The game was initially interrupted and the table cleaned with a vacuum cleaner. It should then be covered with a fresh cloth. While it was initially said in the arena that the match should continue as soon as possible, the World Snooker Tour later announced that the first session between Milkins and Perry should now only begin on Tuesday evening.
In addition, a protester tried to get onto the other table. This was prevented by the Belgian referee Olivier Marteel, who held the woman, as can be seen on a video. There, after a 40-minute break, the game that started in the morning between Mark Allen from Northern Ireland and Fan Zhengyi from China was continued. There is a partition between the two tables that can be removed.
The British activist group “Just Stop Oil” distributed a video of the action on its Twitter account. According to the broadcaster Sky Sports, a 30-year-old man and a 52-year-old woman were arrested after the protest. Both wore white T-shirts, the man’s had the group’s name on it.
