“Oh my goodness me!” screamed ITV’s lead Formula 1 commentator James Allen, words struggling to comprehend the sheer craziness of what was being witnessed. “We’ve got a lunatic on the track!” When a group of protestors from Just Stop Oil invaded the circuit last year during the opening lap of the British Grand Prix, it wasn’t Silverstone’s first run-in with track invaders. Contrarily, 20 years ago, the 2003 British Grand Prix was 10 laps in before deranged Irish priest Neil Horan sprinted up the fiercely quick Hangar Straight. Many drivers had to swerve to avoid him as Horan, dressed in a brown kilt, madly ran into the racing line of F1 cars speeding at 200mph while waving banners which read: “Read the bible” and “The Bible is always right.” The result could have been catastrophic if it wasn’t for the quick awareness of the drivers and the marshal stationed at position ‘Hangar 1’. Volunteering at the British Grand Prix once again, Stephen Green ran into the void of the unknown. “I didn’t really think, adrenaline just kicks in,” Green, now 72, tells The Independent. “I made the decision anyway to wait until most of the pack had gone past. I actually watched it last week on YouTube – it seems like the guy is running up there forever and a day before I get to him. “I think I just barged into him! Then he fell over and I just grabbed his wrists and dragged him. There was a white transit van with security waiting behind the debris fence. I remember what I said to him but it’s not printable!” It was an astonishing scene. While pitch invasions and streakers have for many a long year popped up at various sporting events across the country, a live racetrack is an entirely different situation altogether. More so than any wider cause, lives in the immediacy are at risk. For Green, though, it brought a sense of notoriety not familiar to the men and women in orange suits. Soon after, once the police investigation had subsided and Horan was charged with “aggravated trespass”, the marshal was the second man awarded the BARC (British Automobile Racing Club) Browning medal for outstanding bravery. The first was David Purley, 21 years earlier, following his attempts to save Roger Williamson from a fire at Zandvoort. Meanwhile Horan, laicised by the Catholic Church, did not stop there; in fact, Silverstone was just the start of his bizarre interventions. A year later, at the 2004 Athens Olympics, he ran into the path of lead Brazilian runner Vanderlei de Lima in the men’s marathon and pushed him into the crowds, ruining his path to gold. Months earlier, he was caught by police at the Epsom Derby. He also appeared on Britain’s Got Talent in 2009, performing an Irish jig. Yet that day 20 years ago brought together two very different people from two very different walks of life. A point not lost on Green when, peculiarly, Horan got in touch. “Strangely enough, he emailed me five years ago to ask how I was,” Green says. “We exchanged a couple of emails and that’s about it. “Strange chap, shall we say!” The subject of protestors is top of the agenda at Silverstone this weekend. If not for last year’s near-catastrophe, then for Just Stop Oil’s recent interventions at Twickenham, the World Snooker Championship, the Ashes and just this week, Wimbledon. “At a national event, you always run the risk of idiots turning up and doing whatever they’ve got in mind to do,” Green says. “There was a huge tightening of security after the 2003 incident. “Last year I just got messages from my mates saying ‘why are you not at Silverstone?!’ There is a difference between Just Stop Oil and Horan though, I think everyone would say that Just Stop Oil are actually trying to achieve something. “Motorsport is lucky in many ways that we don’t get as much as we could’ve done. It is very tightly controlled – given F1 goes all over the world, I think it does pretty well.” Green, who still marshals at events across the UK after previous F1 stints in the Middle-East as well as Silverstone, had the rarest of race interactions on that day in ‘03. F1 and the police are on red-alert this Sunday to ensure a repeat does not occur, with the threat level at an all-time high. Read More Lewis Hamilton supports ‘peaceful’ protests at British Grand Prix this weekend Just Stop Oil ‘vital’ says Dale Vince as sports fans are backed to intervene Arrests at Wimbledon after Just Stop Oil protesters storm court twice Lewis Hamilton must be ‘cold-blooded’ in new Mercedes contract negotiations F1 release 2024 calendar with radical change to start of the season F1 descends into farce again after results shake-up – the FIA has to be better

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Marc Skinner is bemused at the lack of praise for his Manchester United side even though they head into the last Women’s Super League game of the season with an outside chance of winning the title. United head to Liverpool on Saturday afternoon two points behind league leaders Chelsea, who will be crowned champions for a fourth successive time if they defeat relegation-threatened Reading. However, even if the final day unfolds as anticipated and United settle for a runners-up spot, it would still be their highest top-flight finish, in a season where they reached the FA Cup final for the first time. Just five years after being reformed, Skinner believes United gate-crashing the established order of Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal should be more widely recognised by those following the game. “We’ve been exceptional this year and I don’t think we get enough credit, I really don’t,” said the United boss. “There’s always a caveat as to why we’re successful. That is other teams’ injuries, other teams maybe not having the run they wanted and having Champions League and I get that. It’s a factor we will have to look at but I just feel the players have been exceptional this year. “It’s not about where we finish in the league right now, that’s not the over-riding factor. We’re growing up in front of the public eye whereas other teams have already done that. I feel this team in a pressure cauldron not only have performed well but won games of football. “We’re still in contention to win and if we don’t we finish second but to do that and disrupt the historical top-three, that is a big, big season regardless of what’s happened elsewhere. “I want people to give this team and the players the credit they deserve.” Aoife Mannion will miss out this weekend after tweaking her knee while blocking a shot in training although Skinner is confident the Republic of Ireland defender will be fit for the World Cup. “We’re hoping so, that’s the plan,” said Skinner, who will also be unable to call upon Maria Thorisdottir because of the Norwegian’s foot injury. “There’s nothing structurally wrong. She won’t be in at the weekend but we’re hoping in a few weeks, she’ll be back.”

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Just when we think we’ve found the best first post on Threads, Instagram’s new “civil” text-based app to rival Twitter, another one comes along which is miles better – and former Labour MP Ed Balls may be the all-out winner after posting exactly what you would think he would post. Well-known for his 2011 Twitter blunder in which he tweeted out his own name instead of searching for it, the Good Morning Britain presenter and ex-shadow chancellor now marks the iconic moment every 28 April on ‘Ed Balls Day’. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Now, adhering to the politician’s principle of giving the people what they want, Mr Balls has set up an account on Threads and kicked things off by posting those two magic words. And it’s fair to say other users on the platform absolutely loved it. One declared: “You’ve won Threads today!” “Thread Balls,” quipped another. A third replied: “I think you win the internet today.” Others, though, have questioned what this means for marking the special occasion, seeing as the Twitter mishap occurred on 28 April (as mentioned previously), but this more deliberate posting happened on 6 July. “Ed! Now I need to rearrange my whole calendar for a new holiday,” complained one user. A second jokingly fumed: “Who do you think you are, Ed? The monarch? You don’t get two special days.” Another asked if the post marked “the new Ed Balls Day”, but that question remains unanswered. It’s unknown whether his wife Yvette Cooper MP, the shadow home secretary, will replicate the meme by reposting one of her Twitter typos. She does have a Threads account, at least… Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.