Cricketers flee as crossbow is fired into Oval
Cricketers and umpires at the Oval had to run for cover when a crossbow bolt was fired from outside the ground and landed on the field. The 18in metal-tipped bolt landed between two fielders during the Surrey middle sex match. Play was abandoned and the stands evacuated.
RAIN or bad light normally stops play during a cricket match. Yesterday it was rather more serious.
Players and umpires ran for their lives after a crossbow bolt was fired from outside the Oval ground and landed on the field.
The match between Surrey and Middlesex was abandoned, and the spectators – about 1,000 in all – evacuated from the stands.
The metal-tipped bolt, about 18in long, landed between two fielders in the middle of an over at about 4.30pm on the final day of the county game.
Armed police raced to the ground in the hunt for the attacker, beginning a search of the surrounding area.
Scotland Yard later ruled out terrorism as a motive for the attack.
Nick Compton, the England and Middlesex player who was batting at the time, later tweeted “Sir Robin of Loxley has just arrived at the Oval” but it was clear that players had a lucky escape.
The bolt landed between Surrey fielders Rory Burns and Ollie Pope.
Surrey’s Stuart Meaker tweeted: “We have just officially gone off the field because a metal tipped arrow just landed on the pitch.”
The stands on the east side of the ground – the direction from which the bolt is thought to have travelled – are relatively low, making it easy for someone to fire one on to the field of play. One gate offers a clear view of the wicket from the pavement outside.
Richard Gould, the chief executive of Surrey Cricket Club, said: “Security is always close to our heart and we will of course review the situation to see if there are any further measures we can consider. But we can’t build a wall high enough to prevent this kind of thing happening. These bolts can be fired hundreds of feet into the air before landing.”
A Surrey spokesman said: “We were about to bowl the next ball and the arrow appeared two pitches to the side of the pitch we’re playing on at the moment. The umpires took it out of the ground and got the players off as quickly as possible.”
‘Now anyone could pay a kid to fire a bolt into a ground to stop a match that’s not going the way they want’
Jeremy Lawrence, a Middlesex fan, who watched the players scurrying for safety, said he – like other spectators – was confused at first over why the game was being stopped.
“I thought, ‘It’s not raining, what’s going on?’ and one of the Surrey cricketers, Rikki Clarke, said, ‘Somebody’s fired an arrow on to the pitch’,” explained Mr Lawrence.
Some spectators were furious that the match had been stopped.
“It’s daft abandoning the match like this. Now anyone could pay a kid to fire a bolt into a ground to stop a match that’s not going the way they want,” said one.
The match was stopped after the first ball of the 69th over, with Middlesex at 214 for seven in their second innings on the fourth and final day.