A pool table vandalized by a climate activist during a match at the world championships was resurfaced overnight and was back on the line at the Crucible Theater on Tuesday.
The green baize at Table 1 in Sheffield, England, turned orange at the start of the afternoon session on Monday when a protester disrupted a match by jumping on the table and dropping a packet of powder.
The match between England players Robert Milkins and Joe Perry was called off, to be restarted on Tuesday, and the previously immaculate cloth needed to be replaced.
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There were no visible signs of orange powder when Jack Lisowski and Noppon Saengkham began their first-round match at the same table in Tuesday’s morning session.
A man wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “Just Stop Oil” performed the stunt in an attempt to draw attention to Britain’s fossil fuel projects.
Activist group Just Stop Oil posted a video of the incident, adding the caption “NEW OIL AND GAS GETS US”, and called on “UK sporting institutions to intervene in civil resistance against the government’s genocidal policies”.
A ‘Just Stop Oil’ protester jumps on the table and throws orange powder during a World Snooker Championship match in Britain on April 17, 2023. (Mike Egerton/PA via AP)
At the same time that the man was throwing orange powder, a woman jumped into the playing arena and tried to tie herself to the center pocket of the other table in play.
The referee stopped her and security took her away. That match, between Mark Allen and Fan Zhengyi, resumed 45 minutes later and ended.
Allen said it was a “surreal moment”.
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“I heard a bang, I thought I was at the other table, and then I turned around and there was a woman at my table,” said the Northern Ireland player, who won the match 10-5. “It could have been so much worse – you saw what happened at the other table and how much disruption it caused.
“I feel like even talking about it is giving them airtime they don’t deserve because they’re just idiots. What are they trying to gain from what they’ve done? I’m sure there are better ways to get their point across.”
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Police said Monday night that two people, a 30-year-old man and a 52-year-old woman, were arrested on suspicion of criminal mischief and were in custody.
It is the second time in three days that a major sporting event has been disrupted in Britain, after 118 people were arrested at the Grand National horse race on Saturday. Some protesters scaled the perimeter fence around Aintree Racecourse and tried to adhere to the large fences around the track.
