Cricket – Hinterland

Hot air balloon interrupts Sussex kids cricket match

Ivan Annibal — Mon, 22 May 2023 10:57:23 +0000

As always I like a balloon based rural story! This tells us:

We’ve heard of rain or bad light stopping play, but never a hot air balloon.

But that is exactly what happened during a cricket match in West Sussex.

Chiddingfold U10s were playing Blackheath U10s at Lurgashall, in Chichester, when the interruption occurred.

Jim Stather, who was watching the match and filmed the scene on Wednesday evening, said: “It came swooping over the roof tops and landed on the pitch whilst the children were playing cricket. I have never seen anything like this.”

The local cricket clubs bowled over by HMRC tax bills

Ivan Annibal — Wed, 29 May 2013 19:42:34 +0000

This story, ostensibly trivial, makes me cross. It seems that high level tax avoiders are now quite brazen in telling HM Revenue to “put up or shut up” in terms of tightening the tax laws, whilst those who play by the rules (literally in this case in terms of cricket) are open to big bills. I am not saying that people and organisations shouldn’t pay their tax. I am however questioning whether the deployment of staff and attention is appropriate in an HMRC set up which can spend hours choking local sporting initiative whilst writing off millions in unpaid revenue for the likes of big merchant banks. What’s more actions like this disincentivise local people from organising the kind of activities which keep their areas fit and healthy. The article itself tells us:

The letter was polite enough. “Could we come and look at your books,” was the message from the tax authorities to Sawbridgeworth Cricket Club in Hertfordshire.

Tax inspectors spent almost five hours going through the club’s neat and detailed accounts, asking questions about payments to staff. The result was a bill for £14,403, an assessment of what the 151-year-old club owed the Exchequer in untaxed earnings of bar staff, accommodation and perks for professionals and a series of other items dating back to 2008.

Val Waring, chairman of the club, which plays in Division 2 East in the Home Counties Premier League, was stunned when the bill arrived.

“I thought the club might have to close and that would have been a disaster,” she recalls.

Similar scenes are being played out at minor cricket clubs throughout the country as HM Revenue & Customs teams extend inquiries down to the grassroots of the summer game.

No ball safety law threaten hit cricket club for six

Ivan Annibal — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:35:08 +0000

This article explains how the old fashioned charm of dangerous country pursuits has been compromised by the dreaded health and safety agenda. It reports…

“One of the country’s oldest cricket clubs faces eviction over fears that passers-by could be hit by stray balls. Lymington CC has played at the Hampshire town’s picturesque sports ground for 175 years – but only recently have health and safety concerns been raised.”

Is it true that hitting the Isle of Wight counts for 7 from this ground?