Empty pockets: how snooker can reduce the temptation of match-fixing

W hen a Just Stop Oil activist disrupted the world championship snooker match between Joe Perry and Robert Milkins in its early stages on Monday night, the players looked suitably bemused. Simply going about their cue-swinging business before the table was rendered unplayable, they could have been forgiven for wondering why a pair of mild-mannered, middle-aged snooker players were being targeted by the protest group in their drive to “stop all new UK fossil fuel projects”, and their calls for “UK sporting institutions to step into civil resistance against the government’s genocidal policies”.

Of course it was nothing personal and it might have been any two players inconvenienced, as the unsuccessful attempt of another activist to simultaneously vandalise the adjacent table at the Crucible showed. The protesters simply wished to raise awareness of their cause, an ambition they can argue was achieved successfully, given it was the subject of widespread international media coverage and I’m writing about it several days later.

PT Barnum famously declared that there is no such thing as bad publicity but the American showman might have revised his opinion on seeing Monday’s events unfold. While there’s no doubt they have their supporters, the protesters’ actions have been roundly criticised, and one suspects none of the snooker fans present in the theatre or watching at home will be rushing to glue their hands to the Sheffield Parkway dual carriageway in solidarity any time soon.

They may, however, be heading to the small claims court, now that the irascible Matchroom Sport promoter Barry Hearn has invited those whose evening’s entertainment was ruined to join him in a civil action he has promised to fund to attempt to