Strangest Things you've seen on a Cricket Field?

Following on from Lee's post about the ball going through the stumps, what are the strangest things you've seem on a cricket field either playing or watching?

Some may be funny moments, some heated or just downright odd!

One I recall is a day in the field and the batter absolutely smacking a lofted half volley of a delivery to our cover fieldsman who was like a rabbit in the headlights. It went so fast to him he just didn't know what to do. Catch it, get out of the way, duck. Nope, none of those, he just let the ball hit him in the chest full cop and then fell over laughing.

As did the rest of us. I think the batter P!ssed himself too. At least our man stooped a certain 4! It could have been going that fast on the up it could possibly have been destined for a 6.

Mostly you had nice red cherries in the sweet spot of your bat, not the centre of your chest!

I played in a game in Melbourne many years ago when the batsman pulled a short ball which hit the head of the unfortunate fielder at silly mid-on. It hit him really solidly and looped back to the bowler.

Batsman out caught and bowled, fielder fine, claimed it didn't even hurt him.

Dog fielded the cricket ball and would not give it back. Took about 10 minutes of people chasing him to corner the dog and retrieve the ball which was in less then pristine shape.

I think the game of chasey was more fun for the dog then chewing the ball.

Funny, not strange.

My team was playing against an extremely quick and good bowler, at home.

He ran through us pretty easily and had taken about 6/20 odd when our No 11 came in.

The bowler sledged the Number 11, suggesting he wouldn't be there long.

Our No 11 pointed to the bowler with his bat and said "I'll let my bat do the talking, mate!".

Bowler charges in, No 11 shoulders arms, stumps go flying.

All of us, both sides, rolled around laughing for a very long time.

UncleHuey wrote:Dog fielded the cricket ball and would not give it back. Took about 10 minutes of people chasing him to corner the dog and retrieve the ball which was in less then pristine shape.

I think the game of chasey was more fun for the dog then chewing the ball.

So which side was accused of tampering with the ball? woof!

Scrappy running between wickets, thankfully there were no mobile phones back then to record me doing the same

Lee wrote:Funny, not strange.

My team was playing against an extremely quick and good bowler, at home.

He ran through us pretty easily and had taken about 6/20 odd when our No 11 came in.

The bowler sledged the Number 11, suggesting he wouldn't be there long.

Our No 11 pointed to the bowler with his bat and said "I'll let my bat do the talking, mate!".

Bowler charges in, No 11 shoulders arms, stumps go flying.

All of us, both sides, rolled around laughing for a very long time.

That's still strange. Did he mean he was talking to the bat rather than the bat doing the talking?
You play with and against some very odd characters at times.

I remember playing with a chap once who did not usually open the batting, but put his hand up to do so one day.
We were playing a side where there had been a bit of previous argy bargy and so he didn't particularly like them.

Upon facing up and playing the first ball, he turned to our bench and yelled pretty loudly, "hey skipper, they're using a very red ball, its very very red". We kinda looked at each other a bit perplexed and thought, "yeah, is that abnormal?"

He still wasn't happy at the end of the over and yelled to the bench again, "Skipper you may want to come and take a look at it!"

You do encounter all sorts on a cricket field.

Late 1990s
Dingo was our opening bowler
A lad of tremendous natural ability ,a naive, gullible lad , who also had psycological problems
Before we fielded I asked how he felt
He said he felt as good as he has been for a while and wanted to bowl very fast

1st ball of the match
I set his field
I was fielding at mid off
I walked up to the start of his bowling mark and had about a 30 second chat on what and how to bowl

Dingo turned around , paused and says
" What the hell is going on , where's the slips?"
There were 4 men in the third man positions on the boundary behind the keeper
I said to him
" Hey Dingo they are the slips, I gotem on the fence coz ya gunna bowl very fast today"

Where was the 'keeper Scrappy? On top of the sight-screen?

You're kidding? A fast bowler with psychological problems?
Listening to Thommo in more recent times about killing blokes, I just wonder if he was 100% there up top too!

not actually on the cricket field but this came to my attention at work today...............obviously his students have been up to some mischief.....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_McArdle

What the...
Brendan Mcardle
Where does one start ?

First Class stats [according to the link provided by Bayman]
BATTING
3391 runs
89.76 batting average

BOWLING
1300 wickets
93.00 bowling average
3/40 best bowling

Born 2/3/1901
That makes him 116 years old , still teaching and playing cricket
Has been described in his Personal Information as a left footed batsman and right arm fast medium bowler

Remarkable endurance
1924 played in the Lancashire League
1976/1977 played in the Sheffield Shield
1984 made his list A debut in England
2018 Listed as a current player, and is 116 years old

Brendan Mcardle has a batting average of 89.86 in first class matches in a remarkable career spanning, at least over 94 years
However his bowling is questionable, his 1300 wickets coming at an average of 93.00 in first class matches

BRENDAN MCARDLE

Fair haired , lean all rounder who played First Class + list A cricket
Born 2/3/2018 , so approaching his 66th birthday
Batted and bowled right hand

FIRST CLASS STATS
BATTING
339 runs
30.81 average
3 x 50s

BOWLING
13 wickets
43.00 average


Played for Victoria from 1976-1979
Started playing  district cricket for Northcote on 1970 , later playing for  Dandelong-Waverley,where he later captained and coached

Brendan Mcardle also had a stint playing district cricket for Woodville in South Australia
Is a mate of that great fast bowler Rodney Hogg, with whom he played with at Woodville [Rodney Hogg was also Dandenong- Waverleys first coach]
I also had a very short stint at Woodville ,around the times ,when Hoggy and Bushy Mcardle were at the club but never made the grade, I considered I had everything to be a district cricketer, but only one thing stopped me, ability
I did get to meet and socialise with Hoggy and Bushy , they were great fun to be with

Heres a couple of recollections :
In his debut in 1970 for Northcote , his first captain was Bill Phantom Lawry
Brendan made a debut duck!

Brendan speaks of the day Rodney Hogg was bowling in a district match to Richard Herman
Hogg had hit Herman several times this day, on one occasion suggested to Herman that he remove the magnet in his helmet !

www.churchcc.co.uk/history.asp
Picture of Brendan Mcardle, he has the bushy blonde hair , and the mo

This must have been funny to see
Richard McCarthy playing for Victoria on the MCG in 1990
Came out to bat and realised something, he forget his bat !