Cow herd damages Allscott village cricket pitch

Thousands of pounds damage caused by a herd of cows has left a Shropshire village cricket team with a fixtures 'nightmare'.

The pitch at Allscott CC, near Wellington, was ruined on Monday night when 20 to 25 cows broke out of a nearby field and found their way onto the pitch.

The cows spent about 45 minutes on the pitch before the farmer and club president Pete Starling managed to get them back into their field.

Mr Starling said: "In all my 44 years at the club this is by far the biggest setback we have had to overcome.

"Two seasons ago it was thieves stealing gang mowers and roller, this season it's cows ruining all those years of work on the cricket field."

Mr Starling was alerted to the cows on the pitch when a member of the club, who is a policeman, drove past and spotted them.

"When I got down there the farmer was there and we managed to get them off the pitch," said Mr Starling.

"I can't see us playing cricket on the main square because of the hoof marks and I don't think any of the wickets are playable."

The lack of pitch is going to cause havoc for the club's seven teams, which might now struggle to play all remaining home fixtures.

"We're going to have to rearrange games and we're going to try to play our third teams games on Sundays," added Mr Starling.

"Luckily we have a second pitch but with three weekend and three junior teams plus a midweek team to run, fulfilling fixtures will be a nightmare to complete."

Brian Kitson, Shropshire County Cricket League secretary, said: "I don't think anything like this has happened before, I can't recall anything similar happening in my time at the Shropshire Premier League."

The club has now had to call in local company Maxwell Amenities to give professional advice and a quotation for the work required.

Adam Phillips, for the Shropshire County Cricket League, said: "I've never heard of this sort of thing."