Theres always a fear now particularly at Football Matches that some idiot will desturb a minutes silence.
Although can't see it being snooker, although I'd put it down to the fact that the applause was used to pay tribute and give thanks to Mr Vine for his great contributation to snooker
This minutes applause crap really p***es me off - what was wrong with a good old fashioned minutes silence.
I disagree. A minute's silence is traditionally the mark of respect afforded to people who died in wars or as a result of terrorist/criminal activities, a disaster etc.
With no disrespect to David Vine, to hold a minute's silence for a retired broadcaster (or footballer) who died of natural causes seems to me to trivialise the marks of respect shown to those who died in more shocking circumstances.
It is much more appropriate to hold a minute's applause to allow people to remember and and pay tribute to the good work David Vine did rather than a minute's silence, which is more suited to circumstances where there is likely to be public grief and the silence can be a shared outlet for that grief. This is especially true where the death is unexpected and due to particularly unfortunate circumstances such as those I mentioned above.
Whilst the news of Mr Vine's death is sad, and his family have my sympathies, but to be blunt, the fundamental circumstances are simply that an elderly gentleman died following a heart attack. It's entirely proper that tributes are paid, but a minute's silence would be inappropriate.