Cow corner: cricket match abandoned after runaway bull stops play | Animals
The cricket match had to be canceled after a runaway bull charged onto the field of play and attacked the players.
A North East Premier League fixture at Burnopfield Cricket Club near Newcastle was canceled on Saturday evening despite efforts to remove the animal from the ground.
Tyneside club manager Martin Oswell said the young bull, weighing around 800kg, escaped from a farm and traveled about a mile to the playground, arriving there at around 3pm.
Safety concerns quickly arose when the animal was seen attacking players and farmers who tried to recapture it.
Oswell said police were called to the scene before the bull left “of its own accord.”
He told the Press Association: “Two of the farmers tried to stop the bull and it hit one of them.
“It was good but I mean the beast probably weighed 800kg.
“This was a young bull, incredibly fit, athletic; quite frankly quite dangerous.”
Oswell added: “We couldn’t get out of it. There was no chance of the game restarting before closing time.
“At first it was pretty new, it was pretty funny, but we never thought it would affect the abandonment of our game.”
The owner of the bull took a cow to the cricket club in an attempt to get the animal off the field, but to no avail.
Oswell added: “The farmer who owned the bull came to the ground and at first tried to kind of coax it out and put it in the pen, but he was unsuccessful.
“The bull was very frightened; he was frightened.”
Second-placed Burnopfield CC in the North East Premier League scored 226 runs against rivals Hetton Lyons, who were 12 to one when the match was abandoned.
