County club formed in 1970 bans sixes due to neighbors’ complaints of balls breaking windows, cars and sheds in vicinity

Due to bizarre circumstances in the neighborhood, one of the oldest counties (formed in 1790) in English cricket Southwick and Shoreham Cricket Club, near Brighton in West Sussex has asked its players to stop hitting sixes. The players have been informed that the first six will not count for any runs but the second attempt to clear the boundary by the player will deemed out.

The decision has been made as result of the smaller dimensions of the ground which means the ball flies into the neighborhood to damage windows, cars, and sheds in the vicinity.

“It’s a very small ground,” said a nearby neighbor Mary Gill to MailOnline. “My parents and grandparents lived in this house before me and cricket balls were always sailing over and causing damage,” she added. “One time – probably in the 1940s – my baby brother was outside in the garden and my mother found a cricket ball in his pram. Over the years we’ve had tiles smashed off the roof, windows broken and all sorts of damage,” the 80-year-old recalled.

However, as expected the players were unhappy with the decision. “Hitting the bowler for a six is part of the glory of the sport. How can you ban it? It’s ridiculous. To take that away removes the joy of it. I don’t agree that the rules should be tinkered with in this fashion,” one of the batters said.

“Everything is about health and safety these days and insurance companies are charging a fortune to indemnify sports clubs against accidental damage or injury to bystanders. If you buy a house next to a cricket ground then you’ve got expect a few cricket balls in your garden,” another player would say.

This is not the first time in English cricket that such peculiar decisions with regards to boundaries have been taken in English county. The St Lawrence ground in Canterbury (Kent) had trees inside the boundaries hitting them would yield four runs.

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