Six-hitting can create spectator hazards

An Ellyse Perry’s six that hit a spectator at North Sydney Oval on Saturday is not a rare occurrence. It made me dive into my book Six Appeal and other reference books before I narrate some hellish stories concerning spectator hazards.

For the touring Australians against Duchess of Norfolk XI at Arundel on 7 May 1989 skipper Allan Border hammered a six that hit Mrs Susan Edwards on the face and broke her nose. Visibly upset, AB was out in the same over and rushed to the boundary to express his concern.

In the early 1900s Kent batsman Kenneth Hutchings’s mother had come to watch him play. When she was comfortably seated at the top of the pavilion Kenneth struck a huge six which landed on her fob watch that was pinned to her dress.

The watch was smashed but she escaped without a scratch.

Hutchings played seven Tests for England, the highlight being his century in the thrilling Ashes Melbourne Test of February 1908, which England won by one wicket. He was killed in action during World War I in 1916 aged 34.

Another lucky escape story concerns Warwickshire batsman John Henry Parsons, who hit four consecutive sixes against the West Indies at Edgbaston in 1928. One of his sixes landed in a spectator’s cup of tea.

The cup was shattered but left its handle – nipped off with surgical finesse – in the startled but unhurt owner’s fingers. Parsons was ordained in the church the following year and retired from cricket in 1934. He died in 1981 aged 90.

(AAP Image/International Cricket Council)

Author Gerald Brodribb narrates two stories of six escapism in his book Hit for Six. In 1946 Lancashire’s WE Phillipson hit a six at Bournemouth, England, that landed with a hideous thump on the stomach of a man sleeping near the sightscreen. The dozing and dazed victim was miraculously unhurt. Who says too much beer is bad for you?

At Parks in 1930 Oxford University’s NM Ford skied a six which landed almost on the toes of a baby sleeping in a pram but did not awaken it.
Not all six victims are that lucky.

The year 1995 belonged to Andrew Symonds, who later represented Australia in 26 Tests. Playing for Gloucestershire against Glamorgan, he set two world records – most sixes in an innings (16) and most sixes in a match (20) at Abergavenny, Wales.

In June 1995 against Sussex at Hove his hits struck the same spectator, a woman from Bristol, twice when scoring 83. Having been hit in the face by a four, she returned from treatment only to be thumped on the leg by Andrew’s six. And it was back to the first-aid room for the lady.

In March 1952 India’s all-rounder Vinoo Mankad was playing a festival match at Matunga Gymkhana in Bombay. As both teams included Test players, a big crowd had gathered.

Opening the batting, Mankad hit a six that landed on the forehead of a five-year-old. The boy fainted, the crowd went “ooh” and “aah” and Mankad rushed to the scene. When he saw the swollen head he prayed aloud for the boy’s safety and refused to continue until a taxi came and the boy moved to a hospital.

So not to worry, Ellyse Perry, it happens to the best.