Runaway bull forces Burnopfield cricket match to be abandoned

A cricket match had to be abandoned after a runaway bull stormed the playing field and charged at players.

The North East Premier League fixture at Burnopfield Cricket Club was called off on Saturday evening despite efforts to remove the animal from the ground.

Club director Martin Oswell said it was an important match, adding: “At first it was quite novel, it was quite funny, but we never thought it was going to impact on our game being abandoned.”

Oswell said the bull’s owner drove a cow to the cricket club in an effort to entice the animal off the field, but to no avail. Police were eventually called to the scene before the bull left “of its own accord”, he said.

Oswell said the young bull, probably weighing around 800kg (126 stone), had escaped from a farm and travelled about a mile (1.6km) to the playing field where it arrived at around 15:00 BST.

“We couldn’t get rid of it,” he said.

“There was no chance that the game was going to restart before the cut-off time.”