A North East Premier League match between Burnopfield Cricket Club and Hetton Lyons had to be abandoned after a bull ran onto the ground and started charging at players.
The unusual incident brought play to a halt as officials and people at the venue tried for a long time to get the animal off the field. Despite several attempts, the bull refused to leave, forcing the match to be called off without a result. The incident quickly went viral on social media; here is the video:
According to a BBC report, the bull, which weighed around 800kg, had escaped from a nearby farm and travelled nearly 1.6km before reaching the cricket ground. Its owner even brought a cow to the venue in the hope of leading it away, but the plan did not work. Police later arrived at the scene, although the bull eventually wandered off on its own.
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Notably, this is not the first time in a cricket match that players have been forced to leave the ground after unexpected interruptions over the years. Bees, snakes, dogs and even African subterranean termites have stopped play on different occasions. A similar incident took place in 2017 during a village cricket match between Kerridge and Mossley, when a cow ran onto the pitch, charged at players and briefly halted the game before eventually leaving the ground.