The odd cracked windscreen is price worth paying for cricket

Times

08-07-2025

'Cricket ball hits man on leg' is not usually an ­unfavourable turn of events in a match. It's often a moment of triumph for the fielding side if the batter's leg has blocked a ball from hitting his stumps.
But not at Danbury Cricket Club in Essex. Players in this village team have been told that play on Dawson Memorial Field — home since 1799 not only to Danbury CC, but used also by two other teams, Tuskers and Oaklands — is suspended because a man in the car park was hit on the leg by a stray cricket ball while loading his car. Does such a punishment fit what is surely a freak event?
In village cricket, where a fielder on the boundary can happily spend an innings filling out their tax return without fear of being disturbed, a ball struck so solidly that it flies over the boundary and into the car park is something so uncommon that it is usually a cause for, first, disbelief at the batter's hitherto hidden prowess and, later, celebration. But not at Danbury. Instead the parish council has pulled up stumps pending 'a ball trajectory risk ­assessment by professional sports specialists'.
Nor are Danbury's cricketers suffering alone. Last summer batters at Southwick and Shoreham Cricket Club, which was formed in 1790 near Brighton, were banned from hitting sixes because those living near the pitch fretted that their houses and cars were in the firing line. In a bewildering inversion of scoring convention, players were warned that their first six would count as no runs. If they hit a second six they would be out.
Parish councils and twitchy neighbours should reconsider their antipathy. Cricket is as emblematic of village life as trading unfounded gossip and treating anyone who arrived later than the Gladstone administration as a newcomer. A cracked windscreen once every few decades resulting from a stray ball should surely be a tolerable price to pay for the communal joy village cricket brings.