|
Talking Law |
|
Lord Denning In 1976, Lintz Cricket Club was involved in an historic court
case brought by residents who complained about cricket balls being hit onto
their property. This resulted in an injunction being imposed on Lintz
Cricket Club which meant that no cricket could be played there. Lintz Cricket Club appealed against the decision, and the following is an extract from Lord Dennings’ summing up in the Jackson v Miller case of 1976. “In summer time, village cricket is the delight of everyone.
Nearly every village has its’ own cricket field where the young men play and
the old men watch. In the village of Lintz in County Durham they have their
own ground where they have played these last 70 years. They tend it well, the
wicket is well rolled and mown. The village team play there on Saturdays and
Sundays. Yet now after 70 years a judge of a High Court has ordered that they
mustn’t play there any more. He’s issued an injunction to stop them. He’s
done it at the instance of a newcomer who’s no lover of cricket. The newcomer
has built – or has had built for him – a house on the edge of the cricket
green which four years ago was a field where cattle grazed. |
|
The animals didn’t mind the cricket, but now this adjoining
field has been turned into a housing estate. The newcomer bought one of the
houses and he complains that when the batsman hits a six the ball has been
known to land in his garden on or near his house. They say that’s intolerable
so they asked the judge to stop the cricket being played, and the judge –
much against his will – has felt he must order the cricket to be stopped,
with the consequence I suppose that the cricket club will disappear, the
cricket ground will be turned to some other use – I expect for more houses
and a factory. The young men will turn to other things instead of cricket.
The whole village will be much the poorer. And all this because of a newcomer
who’s just bought a house next to the cricket field.” Lintz Cricket Club subsequently won the appeal, and to
this day cricket has continued. |
SCREENSHOTS
|
||
|
|
|
|
