The Spectator

When a cricket ball cost Britain an heir to the throne

Plus: Other ways to spend the £3 million cost of ‘plebgate’, and will Bicester really be a garden city?

issue 06 December 2014

A fatal shot

The sad death of Australian batsman Philip Hughes was a reminder that a cricket ball can kill. A blow on the cricket field may even have cost us an heir to the throne.
— One of the earliest suspected victims was Frederick, Prince of Wales, the son of George II, who is first recorded as having played cricket in 1733 when he put up a team against Sir William Gage, in a match played on Mouley Hurst, Surrey.

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