Council on a sticky wicket after loose ball hits pensioner

♦ A grandmother was left needing stitches after being hit by a cricket ball from a ground where the council refused permission for a boundary net.

Barbara Tummey, 80, needed 14 stitches after the ball struck her on the back of her head. The pensioner, from Malvern, Worcs, was visiting Sidmouth in east Devon earlier this week when the incident happened.

The ball came from the Sidmouth Cricket Club whose ground is situated on the other side of the promenade road in the resort. The club had applied for planning permission for netting to stop balls flying out of the ground after a number of incidents – but the local East Devon council rejected the proposal because it wasn’t in keeping with the area.

Explaining what had happened, Mrs Tummey said: “I was sat on a bench with my daughter when a cricket ball came over the wall and a man caught it.

“My daughter said, ‘It is a good job it didn’t hit anyone on the head’.”

The ball then came over again and struck the grandmother-of-two, who was given first aid at the scene.

Mrs Tummey added: “I feel sorry for the cricketers – it wasn’t intentional.”