There is uproar in a pretty Essex village after the local council banned cricket. Three clubs have been suspended from playing at Dawson Fields in Danbury, near Chelmsford, after a member of the public reported being hit by a cricket ball while standing by his car at a nearby leisure centre in May, according to reports.
Danbury, Oaklands and Tuskers cricket clubs are unable to play home matches due to the suspension and reportedly face uncertain features. Nearly 3,000 residents have signed a petition urging Danbury Parish Council to reverse its decision. The club secretary of Danbury Cricket Club said the teams face having to move away from their home ground or pay around £100,000 to put up protective nets.
Rory Carlton told The Times: “We’ve been playing in Danbury since 1798. Our team have been playing at that specific location for well over 50 years, and in that time probably well over a million balls have been bowled, if not more, and there has not been a single recorded incident of a member of the public actually being injured.
“The proposals on the table at the moment are either to essentially put up nets, which would be, as it stands, 20 metres high at a cost of around £100,000, which is just completely prohibitive for the council and us.
“The other option is to relocate; the costs for that are also of a similar magnitude, so it’s kind of left us in a spot where they’re saying, ‘You know, we want to support cricket, but you just can’t play here’, which is really disappointing.”
Danbury Cricket Club has been able to move its remaining home games for this season to a ground in Braintree, more than an hour away.
Mr Carlton fears this could lead to people leaving the side and is worried the suspension could happen to other clubs across the country.
“I think if we start going down this road of, you know, members of the public have to be completely protected at all times, it becomes very difficult to actually engage in any kind of amateur sport, unless you’ve got a facility that is completely segregated from the general public who aren’t participating,” he told The Times.
“There are countless cricket clubs, some really lovely grounds I’ve played at that are right next to a road or a pub.”
The Daily Express has contacted Danbury Parish Council for a statement.
A spokeswoman previously said it was hoped the suspension would only be temporary and that the council was looking into how it could reduce the risk to the public in areas around the pitch.
The spokeswoman told The Telegraph: “The fact that there were at least two car windows, within the last year, smashed by cricket balls being hit into the adjacent car park, across a public footway, indicates that there is a risk to people accessing the facilities.
“As such, it would potentially invalidate its insurance cover and risk litigation if it were to totally ignore the advice that has been received.
“We are waiting for the ball trajectory report that the Essex Cricket Board have recommended to both the cricket clubs and the parish council in order to determine the correct mitigation.”