Hit for six
Boy, 5, nearly killed as cricket ball hits him in face after being whacked out of park in grammar school game
A FIVE-YEAR-OLD boy was almost killed when a stray cricket ball flew over a fence and hit him in front of his horrified mother.
Harry Butt suffered two black eyes, a swollen nose and severe concussion after the ball struck him on the left side of his forehead.
The youngster was with his mother and 12-year-old twin sisters visiting a family friend in Poole, Dorset. The ball struck him on the driveway as they were leaving.
It was hit from the grounds of Poole Grammar School, 60 yards away, during a school league match involving 17- to 18- year- old cricketers on Thursday evening.
Security camera footage shows the force of the impact sending Harry flying to the ground and his mother Michelle, 41, scooping him up. ‘This ball came out of nowhere,’ she said.
‘It skimmed my head and hit my little boy. It sounded like a bomb had gone off and Harry was left sprawled on the floor. We were all hysterical. Something took over and I scooped him up but he was so dazed. I didn’t want to wait for an ambulance so we lifted him into my car and rushed to hospital.’
Harry is now recovering at home, but is struggling to breathe through his swollen nose. His mother said: ‘He’s still not himself, he’s crying every night. I’m still in shock – I still hear the noise.’
Doctors said Harry would have died had the ball hit him anywhere else on the head. Mrs Butt, a full-time mother who lives close to where the accident happened, added: ‘He was millimetres from death.’
The school’s headmaster Andy Baker has apologised to Mrs Butt but claimed health and safety concerns meant it was unable to install extra netting around the school’s 25ft trees, which currently have wire fencing above them.
Neighbours have previously complained about cricket balls coming over. Sarah Bryant, 34, the friend who lives next to the school, said: ‘We warned them that someone could get hurt.’
Mr Baker said the school had looked into the idea of safety netting above the boundary fence before but it had been advised that the council wouldn’t grant planning permission. He added: ‘I am also not sure how safe it would be with the wind we get here.’
He said senior matches would now be played further away from the boundary.