Three cricket clubs in Essex have been suspended from playing at their home venue by the Parish Council, and face being unable to use their ground for the rest of the season after a person was allegedly hit by a stray ball.
All forms of cricket at Dawson Memorial Field in Danbury, home ground to Danbury CC, Oaklands CC and Tuskers CC, were banned earlier this month by Danbury Parish Council, with the suspension now potentially set to last the rest of the season. A Parish Council meeting on Tuesday, June 23 confirmed that a working party would need to be formed to assess the conditions at the ground before cricket could resume, with their finding set to be sent to a risk consultancy.
The venue has hosted Danbury CC for 50 years, with cricket having been played in the village since the 18th century. A petition calling for the resumption of cricket in the village has almost 3,000 signatures.
‘Nobody witnessed the person get hit’
The suspension came into effect after an alleged incident where a member of the public was hit on the back of the leg by a stray cricket ball in a nearby car park to the ground. “Nobody witnessed the person get hit,” said Danbury secretary Rory Carlton. “We completely refute that this incident ever took place, and that it’s appropriate and proportionate, off the back of one incident [to ban cricket].”
The alleged incident in question took place at 1:07pm on May 28, according to an accident form filled out, 10 minutes before the start of a match which had been delayed due to several players being stuck in traffic. Following the report of the incident, the council proposed to close the carpark where the person was hit during matchdays, a plan which Danbury CC agreed to. However, before another match could take place, the council moved to stop cricket from happening at the ground.
“We said we would support and help facilitate that [closing the car park],” said Carlton. “Just before the next game was due to be played, I had a call to say the council had decided to effectively suspend cricket. They needed to do a risk assessment because ‘they didn’t realise someone could be hit by a cricket ball’.
“As part of our set up for each season we have to do a risk register and send it to them, and that has been a risk on each club’s risk register for 10 years. So they do know, and I don’t know why they said that. That really has caused us a lot of problems as a club.”
‘It’s not just a cricket ground’
Dawson Memorial Field is adjacent to a car park used by the local leisure centre next to the club, with the car park also used for match days. Cars have previously been hit by stray cricket balls, which Carlton says happens ‘about once a year’.
Parish Clerk for Danbury Parish Council, Michelle Harper, says: “It’s not a cricket ground, it’s a multi-use field on which there is a cricket boundary marked out and a cricket wicket. But the actual facilities themselves are multi-use. We’ve got bowling clubs, tennis clubs, play equipment, a leisure centre all using the same facilities.
“That’s the first time someone has been hit but we have had regular incidents over the last few years of car windows being smashed and we’ve had broken roof tiles on the leisure centre. Following that and the report that someone has been hit by a cricket ball – although granted that is being investigated – the health and safety consultants advised we had to review the risk.”
Damage to surrounding vehicles and infrastructure are not uncommon occurrences at local cricket pitches, with venues often sharing spaces with other clubs and facilities as towns and villages grow more crowded. Carlton says Danbury have full public liability insurance for any damages caused by cricket at the ground.
“They [car damages] are always dealt with amicably,” says Carlton. “If children or young people, people who aren’t able to move as easily are nearby, then we pause play while they’re in the danger zone.”
One of the compromises allegedly proposed by the council to allow cricket to resume was to erect netting around the ground, a solution which would come at huge cost to the club and require planning permission.
“It [the ground] is right in the centre of the village,” says Carlton. “That’s aside from the cost which would be pretty much prohibitive for our club. It’s a way of saying we are going to allow cricket but we are going to put these unobtainable mitigations in place… It would also make us very unpopular with the residents for putting up a big eyesore in a shared space.
“Some of the mitigations they were proposing were ludicrous, like we should form a cordon around the game of people in high-viz jackets to warn people that there is cricket being played. It’s a bit nutty.”
‘I fear people will leave the club’
All three clubs which use the venue have now had to move to a pitch 20 miles away from Danbury. While the initial suspension was short-term, after a council meeting this week which furthered the length of the suspension until the working group could review its findings, Carlton now fears the club’s future could be at risk.
“It’s left us in a fix to be honest,” says Carlton. “The infuriating thing is we just don’t know and our future is uncertain because there’s not a clear pathway to getting cricket back in Danbury, it’s fallen into this Working Party trap… For our members, it [the ground] is really far away. What I fear is people will leave the club. Why would you travel over an hour each way to go to a club when you could play at another local team which is two or three miles away? We’re trying to find alternatives but it goes back to there not being any immediately available.
“Cricket pitches are a real premium because there’s a lack of them. And to ensure the next generation is coming through in the grassroots of the sport, we need to make sure there’s as many playing facilities available as possible. If we lost this facility, that’s three clubs without a ground.
“We don’t want to lose cricket in Danbury, it’s where we’ve played for generations. We’ve got a lot of fathers and sons, and fathers and daughters, who have played for the club. It’s a really nice community feel.”
Follow Wisden for all cricket updates, including live scores, match stats, quizzes and more. Stay up to date with the latest cricket news, player updates, team standings, match highlights, video analysis and live match odds.
