A RUNAWAY bull stormed a cricket club field and charged at players during the match after it had escaped from a farm.
The North East Premier League fixture at Burnopfield Cricket Club near Newcastle was called off on Saturday evening despite efforts to remove the animal from the ground.
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The bull had escaped from a farm about a mile away from the ground. Credit: PA
Attempts to drive the bull off the cricket pitch failed Credit: PA
Martin Oswell, director of the Tyneside club, said the young bull, probably weighing around 800kg, had escaped from a farm and travelled about a mile to the playing field where it arrived at around 3pm.
Mr Orwell said: “We couldn’t get rid of it.”
“There was no chance that the game was going to restart before the cut-off time.
“At first it was quite novel, it was quite funny – but we never thought it was going to impact on our game being abandoned.”
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The bull’s owner drove a cow to the cricket club in an attempt to entice the animal off the field but to no avail, Mr Oswell added.
“The farmer who owns the bull arrived at the ground and tried at first to sort of cajole it and get it into a pen, but it failed,” he said.
“The bull was very frightened – it was spooked.”
Safety concerns quickly arose as the bull could be seen charging at players, and farmers who attempted to recapture it.
“Two of the farmers tried to stop the bull and it actually hit one of them,” Mr Oswell said.
“He was OK but I mean the beast probably weighed about 800kg.
“It was a juvenile bull, incredibly fit, athletic – quite frankly, it was quite dangerous.”
Police were eventually called to the scene before the bull left “of its own accord”, Mr Oswell said.
Burnopfield CC had scored 226 runs against opponents Hetton Lyons when the match was interrupted.
“We’re second top of the North East Premier League, so it was an important game for us,” Mr Oswell said.
“And it was a game that I think we had a really good chance of winning.
“It would have been a really, really good game of cricket.”
