A PROTESTER defaced one of the Crucible tables with orange powder in one of the sport’s biggest EVER security breaches.
The environmental crackpot jumped out of the stands and then climbed on to table one during the first-round match between Robert Milkins and Joe Perry on day three of the World Snooker Championship.
PAA protester climbed onto a table at the World Snooker Championships[/caption]
PAHe then covered Table One in orange powder[/caption]
PAPlay had to be stopped[/caption]
PAAnd the protester was taken away[/caption]
In an idiotic stunt, the individual then chucked some powder that covered the green surface and forced the session to be instantly halted.
In a coordinated attack, a woman tried to climb on to table two — Mark Allen was playing Fan Zhengyi — but she was stopped by Belgian referee Oliver Marteel.
The action was suspended and both protestors were detained by security backstage.
Stephen Hendry, the seven-time world champion, said on the incident: “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, straightaway as a snooker player I am thinking: ‘Is the table recoverable?’ We don’t know what that is on the table. There is a lot of things that need working out. It is unknown territory.”
MC Rob Walker donned a mask and marigolds gloves and joined-in the hoovering operation with fellow colleagues.
The dramatic incident happened at approximately 7.20pm but play on table two resumed after a 40-minute stoppage.
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World Snooker Tour officials decided to abandon play on the damaged table one for the evening and completely re-cloth it overnight.
And fans took to social media in disbelief at what they had just seen.
One tweeted: “What the heck just happened .”
A second commented: “Absolute morons.”
A third wrote: “Oh my god I’ve never seen anything like this before. A protestor jumps on the table and spreads some kind of orange powder on the table. SCENES!”
A fourth joked: “Wasting the best bit of a bag of Cheetos there.”
While a fifth added: “Who said snooker was boring.”
The protest follows on from demonstrations at the Grand National.
The iconic spectacle – eventually won by favourite Corach Rambler – was pushed back by 15 minutes as police and locals teamed up to drag the yobs away from the racecourse, with 118 arrests made.
But that caused major disruption to the horses who were taken back in from the parade ring and then brought out again.