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Home / The Country

Mystery of cricket pitch in Mossburn swede paddock solved

Otago Daily Times
9 Mar, 2021 11:30 PMQuick Read

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A cricket match is played in a swede paddock in Northern Southland. Photo / Anne Osment

A cricket match is played in a swede paddock in Northern Southland. Photo / Anne Osment

Just like a crop circle in a maize field, mystery surrounds how a cricket pitch appeared in a swede paddock in Northern Southland.

Anne Osment, of Five Rivers, said part of the mystery had been solved — the pitch appeared because a contractor "had a miss" when sowing a winter swede crop in a paddock on Rex Carter's farm in Mossburn on the final Saturday of last month.

However, who placed a set of wickets at both ends of the barren section of swede patch remains unsolved.

"Nobody knows."

When a group of Mossburn Hotel patrons - a mix of past and present farmers - noticed the wickets, they took it as an invitation to hold a "social" cricket match.

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The paddock was christened the MCG - the Mossburn Cricket Ground.

The thistles in the pitch posed a challenge for players, as was fielding in the "knee-high" swede crop.

The cricketers competed for a swede trophy. Photo / Anne Osment
The cricketers competed for a swede trophy. Photo / Anne Osment

"No swedes were harmed - except for the one we used for our trophy."

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Osment hoped the match would become an annual event but future sites would be need to be dictated by oversights of contractors when sowing winter crops.

"If anyone has a miss - let us know."

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