Arrow attack during a County game at Oval forces abandonment

A bizarre arrow attack force halted the play at the Oval between Surrey and Middlesex in the County Championship fixture on Thursday. Eventually, the play was abandoned for the draw as the match ended in a draw with no side on top. But the incident shocked everyone as it would have seriously injured anyone on the field.

The incident happened during the 69th over of Middlesex’s second innings when the 12-inch long metal tipped arrow landed near Ollie Pope, the Surrey fielder, and close to the pitch. The players informed the umpires and straightaway the play was stopped as the fielders and batsmen were seen running for the safety and more than 1000 spectators were advised to take cover.

No injuries due to the attack

According to the statement issued by the metropolitan police, no one was injured and it is believed that the arrow was fired from outside the Oval in Kennington. “Police were made aware at 16:35hrs (1535 GMT) on Thursday, 31 August of reports that an arrow or crossbow bolt had been loosed into The Oval cricket ground,” said the police statement.

“Officers are on scene. The ground is in the process of a controlled evacuation. There are no reported injuries. “At this early stage it is believed that the object came from outside of the ground.There have been no arrests. We retain an open mind as to motive. Enquiries continue,” it further stated.

The Surrey captain Gareth Batty was furious after the incident and condemn the attack strongly. He also mentioned that the arrow would have caused serious damage if it would have hit someone. “It is a deadly weapon for sure, if it had hit someone it would have caused some serious damage. It just shows the world we live in. If it is a crossbow rather than a longbow it is probably someone messing around and not understanding the implications of firing something into the air. Let’s hope it’s a couple of people who will feel pretty ashamed in the morning when they realise what happened,” he said.

Thankfully, there were no reports of injuries but all the players were shocked and the match was abandoned after some time to avoid any further implications and the spectators were told to evacuate the ground after being informed about the same.