A FEMALE protestor had to be manhandled by a snooker referee and security officials at the Crucible after complaining about the TV licence. # Epsteinfilessnooker
A woman randomly vaulted over the front row of the 980-seater arena during the third frame of the final between Shaun Murphy and Wu Yize.
While Wu was at the table, with the score 67-31 in his favour, the punter left her seat, jumped over the barrier, and then began a bizarre protest.
It appears she shouted “who f***ing pays their TV licence anyway” and then “nobody pays their TV licence” before ref Rob Spencer, a former police officer, ran over to stop her approaching the two players.
Three security personnel quickly bolted over, and then she was chucked out of the venue from the 50th edition of the world final.
BBC TV producers decided not to show the episode while it happened, keeping their cameras trained on the table, and it was only a brief interruption.
The crowd clapped as she was escorted from the auditorium and then removed from the arena.
It is not apparent why she is unhappy about paying for a TV license, and television audiences have been very good over the past few days.
John Parrott, the 1991 world champion, said: “Sorry for the minor disturbance, it’s all sorted.”
SunSport has approached the World Snooker Tour for comment.
It had echoes of the Just Stop Oil protest that marred a session during the 2023 World Championship, when an activist threw orange dust on one of the tables.
It also follows the strange protest last night, during the deciding frame of the semi-final between Yize and Mark Allen, when a gentleman shouted: “Never forget the Epstein files.”
A peak of 1.8million watched the closing frame of Allen v Wu, which was finished a11 pmpm on Saturday.
