Batsman has a heart attack but plays on in bid to hit 50

A village cricketer kept on batting through a heart attack because he stood to make his first half-century of the season.

Unfortunately, Jim Young was still on 48 when he ran out of partners. An ambulance then took him to hospital in Harlow, Essex, and, later, to a specialist unit at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London where he had surgery.

Now back home in Westmill, Hertfordshire, Mr Young, 57, admitted yesterday: "I think I was a bit of an idiot really. I should have stopped straight away because it could have finished me off there and then."