One of the world’s oldest cricket clubs has banned players from hitting sixes after complaints of damage from its neighbours.
Players at Southwick and Shoreham cricket club, near Brighton in West Sussex, face the unusual prospect of not being awarded the highest score from a single shot in the sport – which is achieved by hitting the ball over the boundary rope without it bouncing – after the club’s neighbours complained about damage to windows, cars and sheds.
In future those playing at the club, which was formed in 1790, have been warned that the first six they hit will not count for any runs – and if they hit a second one, they will be out.
One batter told MailOnline: “Hitting the bowler for a six is part of the glory of the sport. How can you ban it? It’s ridiculous. To take that away removes the joy of it. I don’t agree that the rules should be tinkered with in this fashion.”
It is understood that batters playing on the Green in recent years have been warned not to hit the ball in a particular area due to a neighbour threatening to call the police. Another player said: “Everything is about health and safety these days and insurance companies are charging a fortune to indemnify sports clubs against accidental damage or injury to bystanders.
“If you buy a house next to a cricket ground then you’ve got expect a few cricket balls in your garden.”
Other clubs have brought in idiosyncratic laws. The St Lawrence ground in Canterbury used to have a tree inside the boundary that was worth four runs if hit, while Lancing Manor has two trees behind the bowler’s arm that are worth two runs.
Mary Gill, 80, whose family have lived in a Grade II-listed cottage alongside the Green for generations, told the Mail: “It’s a very small ground and can’t accommodate the testosterone-fuelled young men who come along and just want to hit the ball as far as they can.
“My parents and grandparents lived in this house before me and cricket balls were always sailing over and causing damage.”
She added: “One time – probably in the 1940s – my baby brother was outside in the garden and my mother found a cricket ball in his pram. Over the years we’ve had tiles smashed off the roof, windows broken and all sorts of damage.”
The MCC, the custodians of the laws of the game, has been contacted for comment.
