Wimbledon security measures fail as Just Stop Oil protestors storm court

Wimbledon security personnel saw their worst fears realised on Wednesday afternoon as environmental protestors made it onto Court 18. Fans had been made to queue outside the grounds for hours earlier this week as guards took extra time to scan for new items added to the banned list, including powder and padlocks.

It took until Day 3 of this year’s tournament for the protest that organisers feared to unfold. Grigor Dimitrov was in the second set of his first-round match against Sho Shimabukuro when two individuals from an environmental protest group made it onto the outside court.

They sat cross-legged on the playing surface, having covered one half with orange confetti before being removed by security and later ejected from the grounds by police. “Just Stop Oil supporters have disrupted the Wimbledon Tennis Championships,” read the environmental protest group’s statement.

“They are demanding that the UK government halts all new licences and consents for oil, gas and coal. At around 14:10 two Just Stop Oil supporters ran onto Court 18, disrupting the match between Sho Shimabukuro and Grigor Dimitrov.

“The supporters threw environmentally-friendly orange confetti glitter and jigsaw pieces onto the courts, before being removed. Play was briefly delayed whilst marshals picked up the pieces.”

One of the protestors, 68-year-old Deborah Wilde, said before the protest: “I’m just an ordinary grandmother in resistance to this government’s policy of serving us new oil and gas licences. In normal circumstances this sort of disruption would be entirely unacceptable, but these aren’t normal circumstances.

The latest incident comes just days after England cricketer Jonny Bairstow carried an environmental protestor off the pitch at Lord’s. Authorities are also aware of the threat of a similar event at the British Grand Prix this coming weekend.

“Of course we’ve taken account of what we’ve seen elsewhere so security has been uplifted in various places around the grounds,” said All England Club chief Sally Bolton earlier this week. “We are really confident in the measures that we’ve taken but I think as we’ve seen at other sporting events, we can’t guarantee anything.”