You cannot get good judges these days
Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2014 10:10 pm
A planning battle over an old village forge next to a cricket pitch yesterday led to a High Court judge asking: ‘What are sixes and fours?’
East Meon Forge and Cricket Ground Protection Association is 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, said 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.
He told Mrs Justice Beverley Lang ‘sixes and fours are frequently hit by batsmen on to forge land, including the roof of the building itself’.
However, the baffled 59-year-old judge, sitting at London’s High Court, said: ‘I don’t play cricket - what does that mean?’
Mr Fookes replied 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.
He added that six runs or four runs were scored automatically without the batsman having to run the runs.
Mrs Justice Lang made no further comment on the game and the court turned to consider the dimensions of the controversial development in East Meon, 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.
