‘What are sixes & four?’: Judge asks during HC case
26 Oct 2014 10:09 PM GMT
It might be the home of Cricket, but not everybody in Britain is aware about the game as it came to the fore during a case in London’s High Court when a judge asked, ‘What are sixes and fours?’
The legal battle over an old village forge next to a cricket pitch led High Court judge Beverley Lang to ask the question. She was hearing a case where East Meon Forge and Cricket Ground Protection Association was challenging East Hampshire District Council’s decision to grant planning permission for an extension with a residential first floor over the single-storey former blacksmith’s workshop.
Robert Fookes, appearing for the association, told Justice Lang that one of the grounds of objection to the development was that the forge was very close to the square on which cricket is played and ‘sixes and fours are frequently hit by batsmen on to forge land, including the roof of the building itself’. The baffled judge, sitting at London’s High Court, said: ‘I don’t play cricket, what does that mean?’ Fookes explained that sixes were scored in cricket when the ball was hit over the boundary without hitting the ground, while fours ‘bounced along the ground’ before crossing the boundary line, the Belfast Telegraph reported.
The counsel added that six runs or four runs were scored automatically without the batsman having to run the runs. Justice Lang made no further comment on the game and the court turned to consider the dimensions of the controversial development in East Meon, which is in the South Downs National Park.
The judge was educated at Wycombe Abbey School and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where she is an honorary fellow. She has been a High Court judge since 2011.
The legal battle over an old village forge next to a cricket pitch led High Court judge Beverley Lang to ask the question. She was hearing a case where East Meon Forge and Cricket Ground Protection Association was challenging East Hampshire District Council’s decision to grant planning permission for an extension with a residential first floor over the single-storey former blacksmith’s workshop.
Robert Fookes, appearing for the association, told Justice Lang that one of the grounds of objection to the development was that the forge was very close to the square on which cricket is played and ‘sixes and fours are frequently hit by batsmen on to forge land, including the roof of the building itself’. The baffled judge, sitting at London’s High Court, said: ‘I don’t play cricket, what does that mean?’ Fookes explained that sixes were scored in cricket when the ball was hit over the boundary without hitting the ground, while fours ‘bounced along the ground’ before crossing the boundary line, the Belfast Telegraph reported.
The counsel added that six runs or four runs were scored automatically without the batsman having to run the runs. Justice Lang made no further comment on the game and the court turned to consider the dimensions of the controversial development in East Meon, which is in the South Downs National Park.
The judge was educated at Wycombe Abbey School and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where she is an honorary fellow. She has been a High Court judge since 2011.
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