RIATH AL-SAMARRAI: Snooker goes LOOPY as a Just Stop Oil protester throws orange powder over a table at the World Championship in the sport's biggest ruckus since a pigeon flew into the Crucible
- last year
In a puff of orange dust, snooker and the art of the protest went quite loopy at the World Championship in Sheffield last night.
The first-round tie between Robert Milkins and Joe Perry was just moments old, at 11-4 to Milkins in the opening frame, when a Just Stop Oil activist broke from the crowd, climbed onto the table, and emptied a packet of powdered paint all over himself and the baize.
You never know when a moment of great or bizarre sporting theatre will uncoil itself, but there are certain occasions when it feels safe to rule one out. Alas, Milkins, Perry, and the environmentalist combined for snooker's biggest ruckus since a pigeon flew into The Crucible last year.
The protester, later identified as Eddie Whittingham, a 25-year-old student from Exeter University, said, ' I don't want to be disrupting something that people enjoy, but we're facing an extremely grave situation.
'Europe is experiencing its worst drought in 500 years. We're seeing mass crop failure right now. We're facing mass starvation, billions of refugees, and civilizational collapse if this continues.
While the sentiment of the protest will strike a chord with many and comes after animal rights activists targeted the Grand National at the weekend, there was no explanation for one particular question — why snooker?
A second protester, Margaret Reid, 52, attempted the same maneuver as Whittingham on the adjacent table, featuring Mark Allen's clash with Fan Zhengyi, but was bundled to the ground by security.
While that match resumed after a 40-minute suspension, Milkins versus Perry had to wait indefinitely for the cloth of their table to be replaced after BBC commentator Rob Walker had earlier attempted to clean it with a vacuum cleaner.
Seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry 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 is on the table. There are a lot of things that need working out. It is unknown territory.'
The first-round tie between Robert Milkins and Joe Perry was just moments old, at 11-4 to Milkins in the opening frame, when a Just Stop Oil activist broke from the crowd, climbed onto the table, and emptied a packet of powdered paint all over himself and the baize.
You never know when a moment of great or bizarre sporting theatre will uncoil itself, but there are certain occasions when it feels safe to rule one out. Alas, Milkins, Perry, and the environmentalist combined for snooker's biggest ruckus since a pigeon flew into The Crucible last year.
The protester, later identified as Eddie Whittingham, a 25-year-old student from Exeter University, said, ' I don't want to be disrupting something that people enjoy, but we're facing an extremely grave situation.
'Europe is experiencing its worst drought in 500 years. We're seeing mass crop failure right now. We're facing mass starvation, billions of refugees, and civilizational collapse if this continues.
While the sentiment of the protest will strike a chord with many and comes after animal rights activists targeted the Grand National at the weekend, there was no explanation for one particular question — why snooker?
A second protester, Margaret Reid, 52, attempted the same maneuver as Whittingham on the adjacent table, featuring Mark Allen's clash with Fan Zhengyi, but was bundled to the ground by security.
While that match resumed after a 40-minute suspension, Milkins versus Perry had to wait indefinitely for the cloth of their table to be replaced after BBC commentator Rob Walker had earlier attempted to clean it with a vacuum cleaner.
Seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry 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 is on the table. There are a lot of things that need working out. It is unknown territory.'