World Snooker Championship final halted by protestor complaining about BBC licence fee

The World Snooker Championship Final was briefly interrupted by a female protestor who had to be escorted from the playing area by a referee and security staff.

Match official Rob Spencer was forced into emergency action when a spectator jumped over the advertising hoardings at the Crucible Theatre and appeared to shout ‘who f***ing pays their TV licence anyway’ and then ‘nobody pays their TV licence’.

TV producers opted against showing the incident with the cameras trained on the table while the protestor was dealt with and led away.

Play quickly resumed John Parrott, the 1991 world champion, said: ‘Sorry for the minor disturbance, it’s all sorted.’
Last night’s semi-final between Yize and Mark Allen was also the subject of a bizarre interuption when a member of the crowed yelled ‘Never forget the Epstein files.’
Neither protest was, however, quite as disruptive as Just Stop Oil protest that occurred atthe 2023 World Championship and saw an activist throw orange dust on one of the tables.

Despite the commotion, meanwhile,the two finalists produced a fascinating first session which ended all square at 4-4.

Yize, bidding to become the second successive Chinese winner, overcame his late night finish against Allen to race into a 3-0 lead.

Murphy, who won an equally tense semi-final against John Higgins, claimed the last frame before the interval and return from the break in inspired form to take4-3 lead.

Yize, however, squared the match with an accomplished break of 65 ahead of this evening’s session with play set to resume at 19.00.

‘It was important for Wu to win that last frame,’ said 1997 champion Ken Doherty.

‘He’d made a 65 break, was going for the maximum and went for a risky black.

There was plenty of danger when he missed it and it could have cost him, but he’ll be very relieved to get out at 4-4.

‘Overall, Shaun will be happy to get out at 4-4.

At 3-0 down, Shaun was all at sea and fighting with himself when he was in the chair.

‘But he dug himself out of a hole, started to play really well and he might say he could have won the session, but I think both players will be happy in different ways.’