Environmental activists, rain put pause to play at Wimbledon for 2nd straight day

Rain is again affecting play at Wimbledon on Day 3 of the grass-court tournament, and two environmental activists halted one match as well.

Intermittent showers Wednesday forced matches on the outside courts to be suspended twice, while play in the main stadiums was also stopped for a short time because of the weather.

Two Just Stop Oil protestors were arrested after disrupting one match by running onto Court 18 and throwing orange confetti onto the grass, before being led off by security. That stopped the first-round encounter between Grigor Dimitrov and Sho Shimabukuro early in the second set, and the rain then came before the confetti could be cleared.

The match resumed with the others after the rain delay. The two protestors were arrested "on suspicion of aggravated trespass and criminal damage," the All England Club said in a statement.

Wimbledon increased its security in coordination with London police and other agencies for this year's tournament, in part as a result of protests at other major sports venues in Britain this year.

"Based on what has happened at other sporting events, and on the advice from our key partners, we have reviewed our security plans, which have now been uplifted for The Championships accordingly," All England Club operations director Michelle Dite said last week.

"We have plans in place to mitigate the risks working in partnership with specialist agencies and the Metropolitan Police and should an incident occur, the appropriate specialist teams will respond," Dite said.

Earlier in June, protesters held up the England cricket team bus briefly during the test against Ireland in London. Activists also have targeted Premier League soccer matches, the Premiership rugby final at Twickenham, and