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Test match carrot may sue after being pulled from ground

By Paul Stokes

Wednesday 30 July 1997


A CRICKET-mad academic is threatening legal action after he was ejected from the fourth Test between England and Australia while dressed as a carrot.

Brian Cheesman, 51, was escorted out of the ground on the opening day of the game at Headingley last week. Minutes earlier, he had been joking with Geoff Boycott, the former Yorkshire and England opening batsman, in a hospitality suite.

When he returned to his seat in the Western Terrace after the lunch interval, he was tapped on the shoulder and asked to go to the police control unit. He was told to stand against a wall and take off his costume so that his photograph could be taken before being marched out of the ground in Leeds.

When he arrived home, he telephoned the ground to demand an explanation and was told that he had been excluded from the ground for ``drunken and abusive behaviour''. Mr Cheesman said: ``I was livid. I definitely wasn't drunk but it is the reference to abusive behaviour that I really objected to. I am not an abusive person.''

He is seeking legal advice over the allegation and demanding a public apology, compensation and a refund on his £18 ticket.

Mr Cheesman, an ardent cricket fan, is a principal lecturer at Leeds Metroplitan University and specialises in childhood and children's play. Since 1982, he has raised money for charity by attending the opening day of Headingley Test matches in various guises, including a lion and a polar bear.

Mr Cheesman said: ``It is something that is inspired by my work. I'm intrigued at how people react to someone dressed in costume. This was the first time I have had a negative reaction. I had never had so much as an offensive remark in 15 years. I have no idea why I was thrown out of the ground - someone obviously doesn't like carrots.''

He said he had had a few glasses of champagne at his home in Shaw Lane, Headingley, before the match and then bought two pints of beer for himself and a friend.

Mr Cheesman said: ``As soon as I took my seat, I could see that all the stewards were concerned about my presence. I wasn't easy to miss in my carrot outfit.''

During the lunchbreak, a friend invited him for a drink in the hospitality suite and he claims that the policeman on the door happily waved him inside, where he joked with Boycott. As he returned to his seat, he stopped off to talk with a group of Australian fans in the North Enclosure.

He said: ``As we were chatting away, some stewards came over, tapped me on the shoulder and said I'd been caught on video and I was being watched. I couldn't believe it. Then a couple of minutes later, they came over again and said the police wanted to eject me.

``I was escorted to the control unit and told to take off my costume so they could take my photo. I felt like a criminal. I was then frogmarched out of the ground. No one bothered to tell me what I was supposed to have done.''

His son Joe, 17, and a group of 10 friends were left inside the ground unaware of what had become of him.

No one from Yorkshire County Cricket Club was available for comment yesterday. The club had introduced stringent security measures for the Test after previous problems with spectators on the Western Terrace.

Another man who was part of a pantomime cow may sue for compensation after he claimed that he was injured by stewards who rugby-tackled him at the same match. Branco Resek, 34, of Bicester, Oxfordshire, and a friend took to the pitch at Headingley at the close of play on Friday. He claims that he was thrown into the advertising hoardings by stewards with such force that he was knocked unconscious. His friend was not hurt.


Source: The Electronic Telegraph
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Date-stamped : 25 Feb1998 - 19:18