Mark Allen was relieved that snooker avoided their Monica Seles moment after the sport’s biggest ever security breach at the World Championship.
Tennis ace Seles was stabbed in the back as a crazed Steffi Graf fan got onto court 30 years ago.
On Monday night, an environmentalist yob defaced one of the Crucible tables with orange powder, whilst another crank was stopped from doing the same during Allen’s match by fearless Belgian referee Olivier Marteel.
Read next: Mark Allen blasts 'two idiots' who interrupted World Championship snooker first round match
Three-time world champion Mark Williams tweeted “…they could have had knifes on them”.
And whilst world No 3 Allen praised on-the-ball ref Marteel and security staff for their intervention in stopping the second protestor ruining his table, he admitted it could have been much worse.
The UK champion reflected: “I can see there is a safety risk – as other players have said, they could have had knives and that makes what referee Olivier Marteel did even more impressive.
“He didn’t know what they had or didn’t have, he just instinctively acted. The security do an amazing job, I’m not going to criticise them. It’s hard to watch 900-plus people in that crowd and keep your eye on everyone all the time.
“I won’t name names, but I know some players have received death threats and stuff over the years, and have had to play under that knowledge and scrutiny.
“The odd person coming on with a bit of powder is nowhere near as bad as that.
“But unfortunately bad things happen. We saw it with Monica Seles in tennis, and you get some crazed fans or crazed protestors that go down weird roads to prove their point.
“Security did their best, in hindsight maybe things could be done differently.
“So if you had someone in there that could potentially be a danger to players and staff or other fans, it’s far from perfect.”
World Snooker Tour released a statement announcing increased security measures yesterday.
They have beefed up security in the arena and only small bags, which will be subject to rigorous searches, are allowed into the venue.
Meanwhile, Matchroom Sport president Barry Hearn wants to see protestors slapped with tougher sanctions.
He said: “I would tighten up security a lot, but it would help me a lot if there were more clearly defined penalties for people that are subsequently found guilty of an offence of this nature.
“I don’t see any deterrence. We do live in a black and white world, there are rules to follow. It’s called a democracy. It’s not an anarchy, it’s a democracy.
“If people break those rules then there must be a deterrent to stop others doing it again. And I don’t think they are in place, because like everything else, we have all gone a bit soft.”
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