Cricketers pause match to help tackle wildfire

Quick-thinking cricket players paused their match and rushed to help tackle a wildfire as it encroached on a nearby home.

Firefighters were called to the blaze on a field off Aliwal Road, Whittlesey, at about 16:30 BST on Sunday.

Cambridgeshire Police said it was investigating it as a suspected arson attack.

Andrew Ward said he and three teammates from Whittlesey Cricket Club, based at the nearby Manor Leisure Centre, hurried to help as soon as they realised something was wrong.

"The smoke was coming across slowly and then all of a sudden it became unbearable to carry on playing and you could all of a sudden see the flames," the 38-year-old told the BBC.

He said the cricketers - including teammates David Drage, 59, Andrew Phillips, 42, and Brian Warwick, 48 - ran towards a house on Aliwal Road which the fire was heading towards and alerted the people living in the house they were in danger.

"Our instinct was to look after the people in that house, to make sure they were out, and to make sure that we could try and save it in the best way we could," he said.

"I don't think at that point in time cricket even mattered. We needed to get across there and make sure [they were OK]."

The cricketers helped to remove fence panels and used a hose to soak the area around the house, and stayed to assist firefighters.

Ward, who runs a hotel in Peterborough, said their match against Werrington Cricket Club was paused for about 90 minutes.

He said his side was not in a great position before the break, but the tables turned and the Good Samaritans went on to beat their opponents.

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service said crews attended from six fire stations alongside a volunteer crew.

Cambridgeshire Police said: "There have been no arrests, a crime of arson has been raised and an investigation is ongoing."

Firefighters were called to several wildfires in Cambridgeshire over the weekend, including a blaze which spread across three fields in Peakirk, near Peterborough.

Chris Milligan-Smith, whose house overlooks the land, said it was "the scariest thing I've ever encountered".

"I was out cutting my own lawn and tending my hedges and you could smell something was a little bit off. I turned around and could see a huge plume of smoke," he said.

"We ran around to take a look and it became evident it was massive and clearly out of control."

He said he returned to his home and started dampening the area around it with water.

"A few moments later, I couldn't see the fire, but I could just hear it roaring towards me. The noise of it was like something ungodly. It was horrendous."

The property was not damaged, but he said he lost fence panels, trees, and his electricity supply.

Mark Isaacs, who has lived in the village for 16 years, said he had "never seen anything as scary as this".

"A lot of us really thought that our houses were going to burn down… it was like something out of a movie. It was really very scary."

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