WIMBLEDON, England — This was not the kind of racket that tennis fans wanted to see at Wimbledon.
Protestors from a climate change activist group disrupted a pair of matches at the Grand Slam event on Wednesday, tossing orange confetti and jigsaw pieces on Court No. 18.
Two protesters ran onto the court during play and halted the match between Japan’s Sho Shimabukuro and Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov, ESPN reported. Later in the day, another protester interrupted Katie Boulter’s match against Daria Saville on the same court.
The protesters were from the Just Stop Oil group, the BBC reported.
Deborah Wilde, a retired teacher from London, and Simon Milner-Edwards, a retired musician from Manchester, were detained after disrupting the men’s match, The Guardian reported.
Several hours later, William John Ward, 66, bolted from his front-row seat at Court 18 before scattering a 1,000-piece Wimbledon-branded jigsaw puzzle and environmentally friendly orange confetti onto the grass court, according to the newspaper.
All three protesters were arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass and criminal damage, The Guardian reported.
“We’ve had enough disruptions with the weather,” four-time Wimbledon semifinalist Tim Henman, a member of the board at the All England Club, said on the BBC broadcast of the match, according to The Associated Press. “But to get a disruption like that is disappointing.”
The first stoppage of play at the Grand Slam event occurred at the start of the second game in the second set with Dimitrov serving, ESPN reported. The two protesters sneaked the confetti onto the court by hiding it in a Wimbledon-branded jigsaw puzzle box.
They were wearing T-shirts sporting the group’s name, according to The Athletic.
Milner-Edwards said he felt “absolutely fine” about being arrested.
“I would run in front of a car to save my grandchildren,” he told The Guardian. “New fossil fuels are a stain on this country and I’m not going to allow my grandchildren to have to pick up the pieces.”
“I’m just an ordinary grandmother in resistance to this government’s policy of serving us new oil and gas licenses,” Wilde, 68, said, according to SkyNews. “In normal circumstances this sort of disruption would be entirely unacceptable, but these aren’t normal circumstances.”
“Forget strawberries and cream, scientists are warning of impending food shortages, mass displacement and war. “This is a crisis and it needs a crisis response.”
The protester in the next match was dragged from the court by security guards after he showered the court with confetti, ESPN reported. Play was halted with Boulter and Saville helping ground staff personnel clean the surface.
“I don’t like making a racket, but I don’t want my grandchildren, nieces and nephews to suffer,” Ward said, according to SkyNews. “I have no choice but to get the message out in whatever way I can.”
In a statement, the All England Club confirmed that the protesters had been arrested.
The disruption was Just Stop Oil’s latest protest at sporting events in the United Kingdom, the BBC reported.
Group members of the anti-oil group interrupted the second Ashes Test cricket series and covered tables with orange powder at the World Snooker Championships in April, according to the news organization.
Members also ran onto the field at the Premiership rugby final in May, the BBC reported.