Stuart Bingham calls for referee Olivier Marteel to be honoured after tackling protester at World Snooker Championship

Stuart Bingham has added to the calls for snooker referee Olivier Marteel to be honoured for his bravery after wrestling a Just Stop Oil protester away from the table at the World Snooker Championship. Mark Allen was in first-round action against Fan Zhengyi on Monday when a woman attempted to clamber onto the baize, but Marteel was able to thwart the protestor.

Ad Another protester got on the other table and threw orange powder across it, disrupting play for the evening. World Championship'Sounded like the cue had snapped!' — Watch Selby's 'frightening' flukeAN HOUR AGO Posting on Twitter, former world champion Bingham said: “I can't believe nothing has been done so far for @BelgianProRef1 for his quick thinking and bravery the other night with the protester.

“Without him and what he done, there wouldn't have been any snooker that night. “Hats off to @wst [World Snooker Tour] for getting the tournament back on schedule but the right thing to do is to reward or honour Olivier's bravery.” Marteel leads an interesting life away from snooker and works as a radiology nurse in his native Belgium.

Speaking on Eurosport's The Power of Sport show, he revealed his anguish at not being able to do the thing he loves due to the Covid-19 pandemic before being able to return and referee last year’s World Championship final. «I missed two World Championships because of Covid, which for me was like am arm or a leg cut off,” he explained.

»It's like a kid who has received gifts and toys and suddenly for more than a year, doesn't receive anything anymore. «Then suddenly you take a kid to a toy shop, you open that door and the eyes of the kid light up! You know you're going to be the man in the middle from a qualifier on day one up to the